] 


^0. 


BR  1610  .T3  1834 
Taylor,  Jeremy 
A  discourse  of  the  liberty 
of  prophesying 


THE 


SACRED    CLASSICS; 


€tibfnet   aibvar^   of  IBMmts- 


m^- 


EDITED   BY 

THE    REV.  R.  CATTERMOLE,  B.  D. 

AND 
THE  REV.  11.  STEBBING,  M.  A. 


Vol.    1. 

FIRST  AMERICAN,  FROM  THE  LAST  LONDON  EDITION. 


RELUCENS. 


W^SHINGTOJS  : 

STEREOTYPED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  DUFF  GREEN, 

»  

1834. 


A  DISCOURSE 


LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING 


THE  UNEEASONABLENSSS  OF  PRESCRIBING 
TO  OTHER  MEN'S  FAITH i 

AND  THE 


By  JEREMY  TAYLOR,  D.  D. 

.^jj, .     ChaTjlain  ia  Ordinary  to  King  Charles  the  First,  and  some  time 


^- 


Lord  »ishop  of  Down  and  Coniioir. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY, 

BY  THE 
REV.  R.  CATTEflMOLE,  B.  D. 


WASHINGTON: 

STEREOTYPED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  DUFF  GREEN. 

iS34« 


D  V  E  R  tli  ^  t"^  ^  '^  ^--^  '.' 


A 

TO   THE   LONDON  EliXTION 


DON  ECJ 


No  other  country  is  so  rich  as  England  in  Sacred  Lite- 
rature. Her  greatest  poets  and  philosophers  have  shared 
with  her  divines,  in  setting  forth  and  establishing  the  truths 
of  Revelation ;  while  her  divines  have  been  disting-uished 
alike  b)'  the  copiousness  and  the  depth  of  their  learning. 
The  soundness  of  character  thus  given  to  the  standard  The 
ology  of  England  has,  through  a  variety  of  circumstances, 
been  happily  prevented  from  degeneratino;  into  the  harshness 
of  scholasticism  ;  and  thus  the  whole  series  of  our  '  Sacred 
Classics'  is  a  well  of  truth  and  consolation,  as  open  to  the 
general  reader  as  to  the  most  learned  student. 

But  though  several  detached  works,  in  different  shapes, 
and  under  many  varieties  of  price,  have  been  of  late  brought 
into  circulation,  no  attempt  has  yet  been  made  to  form  the 
noblest  productions  of  our  theological  writers  into  a  uniform 
Library  of  Divinity,  and  to  present  the  collection  to  the 
public  at  such  a  price,  that  he  who  purchases  at  present  the 
cheapest  of  ephemeral  publications,  may,  for  the  same  money^ 
possess  himself  of  works  which  cannot  fail  to  afford  him 
guidance  and  support  in  the  highest  exercise  of  his  faculties, 
and  under  every  vicissitude  of  life. — It  is  the  desire  of  the 
proprietor,  in  undertaking  '  The  Cabinet  Library  of 
Divinity,'  to  effect  this  important  object. 

It  is  intended  to  comprise  in  this  collection,  the  best  works 
of  all  the  most  celebrated  writers,  whose  labors  have  been 
devoted  to  the  elucidation  and  practical  enforcement  of  the 
principles  of  revealed  truth,  whether  in  tlieir  application  to 
the  immortal  interests  of  individuals,  or  the  order  and  well- 
being  of  society.  Treatises  on  the  Doctrines,  Morality, 
and  Evidences  of  Christianity,  which  have  received  the 
permanent  stamp  of  general  approbation ; — select  Sermons 
of  the  most  eminent  Divines  ; — the  most  interesting  speci- 
mens of  Religious  Biography  ;— and  the  choicest  exam 


b  ADVERTISEMENT. 

pies  of  Devotional  and  Sacred  Poetry,  will  succeed 
each  other  in  the  order  which  may  be  judged  most  conducive 
to  the  benefit  and  gratification  of  the  reader. 

To  the  productions  of  each  author,  or  to  each  separate 
production,  as  the  case  may  seem  to  require,  will  be  prefixed 
an  Introductory  Essay,  pointing  out  their  characteristic 
excellencies ;  and,  in  some  instances,  comprehending  a  bio- 
graphical sketch  of  the  author,  with  remarks  on  tlie  state  of 
rehgion  in  his  times. 

This  being  the  design  of  the  publication,  the  first  volume 
of  which  is  now  submitted  to  the  public,  it  will  perhaps  be 
considered  almost  unnecessary  to  suggest  to  what  class  of 
readers  in  particular  such  a  work  must  be  a  dedderatum  : — 
that  which  is  so  unquestionably  valuable,  cannot,  it  is  be- 
lieved, but  prove  acceptable  to  all.  It  is  considered,  however, 
that  those  guardians  and  instructors  of  our  youth,  who  are 
desirous  of  recommending  a  course  of  serious  reading,  in 
preference  to  the  desultory,  unsatisfactory,  and  often  per- 
nicious practice,  of  skimming  over  the  light  miscellaneous 
productions  of  tlie  day,  cannot  give  a  more  judicious  proof 
of  their  regard,  than  by  presenting  their  young  friends  with 
a  series  of  volumes  of  this  nature.  Its  attractive  form  will 
interest  their  (astes,  while  its  substantial  wortii  will  scarcely 
fail  to  produce  a  permanently  beneficial  impression  upon 
their  intellectual  and  moral  faculties.  To  readers  of  more 
mature  years,  fev/  words  are  needed  to  recommend  the 
writings  of  men  who  were  the  brightest  ornaments  of  the 
Protestant  Church  in  the  days  in  which  they  lived,  and  the 
])roductions  of  whose  pens  have  stood  the  test  of  ages,  and 
have  been  hallowed  by  time.  To  them,  a  reprint  of  autliors, 
of  whom  many  are  known  to  the  present  generation  only 
throug;h  the  recommendation  of  those  scholars  and  divines, 
who,  in  our  times,  have  had  taste  and  leisure  to  become  fa- 
miliar with  the  wealth  of  the  best  periods  of  our  theological 
literature,  and  whose  works  have,  in  many  instances,  been  so 
scarce  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  their  procuring  a  copy 
for  themselves,  must  be  a  source  of  satisfaction  and  deliglit : — 
the  proprietor,  therefore,  fearlessly  issues  this,  the  first  of  a 
numerous  series,  confident  that  he  has  neither  mistaken  the 
wants  of  the  age,  nor  anticipated  the  time  when  such  a  pub- 
Jication  would  be  deemed  both  useful  and  attractive. 

To  those  Dignitaries  of  the  Church,  as  also  to  those  Divines 
and  Ministers  by  whom  he  has  been  honored  with  the  per- 
inission  of  adding  their  names  as  patrons  of  the  undertaking, 
his  most  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due,  and  ai'e  here 
most  respectfully  tendered. 

Jamtary  1,  1833. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY. 


The  measure  of  freedom  enjoyed  in  a  country 
will  always  be  in  proportion  to  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  virtue  among  the  people.  In  the 
latter  ages,  therefore,  of  the  degenerate  Roman 
empire,  over  which  the  mists  of  ignorance  were 
settling  with  increasing  density,  and  from  which 
public  virtue  had  fled,  all  remains  of  liberty  be- 
came  extinct.  It  was  only  by  the  disruption  and 
removal  of  that  gigantic  despotism,  and  by  the 
introduction  of  governments,  in  its  place,  with  in- 
stitutions which,  though  yet  in  all  the  rudeness  of 
infancy,  were  in  their  nature  more  favorable  to 
tlie  development  of  the  intellectual,  and,  in  a  still 
higher  degree,  of  the  moral  powers  of  man,  that  a 
way  could  be  prepared  for  the  future  admission  of 
every  free  agent  to  the  full  exercise  of  his  natural 
rights.  To  the  gradual  establishment  of  a  national 
diurch,  and  to  the  existence  of  a  feudal  nobility, 
in  each  of  the  kingdoms  formed  by  the  Gothic  and 
Celtic  races,  we  owe  our  present  enjoyment  of 
what  vve  justly  deem  the  birth-right  of  moral  and 
7 


8  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

civilized  human  beings.  Those  ennobling  senti- 
ments which  were  cultivated  by  that  order  of  the 
community,  with  whom  alone  the  light  of  learning 
and  science  remained,  found  their  way  by  little  and 
little  unto  the  bosoms  of  a  bolder  and  more  active 
and  powerful  class.  The  improvement  of  the 
vassal  population,  resulting  from  the  humanizing 
influence  of  the  clergy  and  the  nobles,  was  assis- 
ted by  many  concurring  circumstances,  such  as 
the  increase  of  commerce,  the  rise  of  independent 
republics,  and  the  foundation  of  the  great  schools 
and  universities.  As  the  number  of  those  increased 
who  rose  to  the  mental  and  moral  dignity  of  free 
men,  so  did  the  number  of  those  who  sought  and 
acquired  a  share  of  the  rights  of  free  men.  These 
might  be  but  ill  understood,  and  find  as  yet  no 
clear  expounders,  but  they  began  at  least  to  be 
practically  vindicated.  The  strong  holds  of  arbi- 
trary power  were  by  degrees  undermined,  and 
limits  to  irresponsible  authority  rose  up  in  all 
directions;  until,  at  length,  the  grand  and  anima- 
ting spectacle  presented  itself,  of  a  free  and 
enlightened  people,  enjoying  the  bounties  of  Provi- 
dence, and  cultivating  the  best  faculties  of  their 
being.  Finally,  law  placed  its  sanction  upon  what 
intelligence  and  virtue  had  achieved ;  and  that 
freedom  in  which  the  existing  generation  rejoiced, 
was  secured  by  solemn  enactments  to  poste- 
rity. 

Such  was  the  progress  of  civil  freedom,  nor  was 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  9 

the  growth  of  religious  liberty  the  result  of  oflier 
causes.  In  a  country,  where  religion  is  purely  a 
political  engine,  as  was  the  case  in  pagan  Rome, 
toleration  is  impossible,  because  under  such  circum- 
stances treason  and  nonconformity  are  identical. 
Notwithstanding  the  boasted  indulgence  of  the  em- 
pire, in  this  respect,  towards  conquered  nations, 
and  the  ease  with  which  the  popular  superstition 
sat  upon  the  powerful  and  intelligent  classes,  how 
far  the  Romans  were  from  allowing  liberty  of 
conscience,  sufficiently  appears  in  the  numerous 
and  terrible  persecutions  by  which  they  strove  to 
exterminate  the  professors  of  that  religion  which 
even  their  great  men  have  branded  as  "  a  new  and 
mischievous  superstition." 

As  long  as  the  Christian  church  continued  un- 
corrupted,  the  utmost  forbearance  and  mildness 
towards  the  professors  of  heretical  opinions,  con- 
sistent with  public  order,  appear  to  have  prevailed. 
With  corruption  came  in  persecution.  The  first 
example  of  intolerance,  on  the  part  of  Christians 
towards  each  other,  appeared  in  the  distractions 
occasioned  by  the  followers  of  Arius,  and  by  the 
other  powerful  sects  which  rose  about  the  same 
time,  or  not  long  afterwards.  But  whatever  seve- 
rities v/ere  recommended  and  put  in  practice  by 
these  schismatics,  by  the  Iconoclasts,  at  a  later 
period,  or  by  the  church,  in  its  angry  endeavors 
to  crush  the  swarms  of  heresies  by  which  its  peace 
was  assailed,  the  rage  of  persecution  among  Chris- 


10  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

tians,  in  those  earlj  times,  always  stopped  short 
of  the  punishment  of  death. 

That  during  the  long  interval  from  the  seventh 
to  the  thirteenth  century,  while,  in  the  eastern 
empire,  religious  disputes  were  carried  on  with 
the  utmost  fierceness  and  cruelty,  we  find  com- 
paratively few  instances  of  extreme  intolerance 
displayed  by  the  church  of  Rome,  may  be  accoun- 
ted for  without  supposing  the  prevalence  of  a 
spirit  of  Christian  forbearance,  which  is  not  to  be 
met  with  even  in  the  history  of  far  more  enlight- 
ened periods.  Such  were  the  power  of  the  popedom 
and  the  feebleness  and  infrequency  of  resistance 
to  its  dictates,  that  we  need  not  wonder  if  tlie 
successors  of  St.  Peter  were  not  often  to  be  roused 
from  the  slumbers  of  sensual  enjoyment,  or  with- 
drawn from  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  and  the  con- 
test with  kings  and  emperors  for  temporal  domin- 
ion, by  controversies  about  doctrines,  with  obscure 
and  unheeded  speculatists.  It  was  not  till  more 
decided  indications  of  returning  intellectual  light 
presaged  danger  to  the  existence  of  that  usurped 
ecclesiastical  tyranny,  that  it  thought  proper  to 
put  forth  its  energies  for  the  destruction  of  those 
whom  it  regarded  as  heretics.  Scotus  Erigena  in 
the  ninth  century,  and  Berengarius  in  the  eleventh 
if  not  suffered  to  escape  uninjured,  were  at  least 
permitted  to  live,  though  chargeable  with  as  bold 
invasions  of  the  domains  of  established  corruption, 
as  those  which,  at  a  later  day,  were  the  excuse 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  11 

for  deluging  the  valleys  of  the  Alps  with  the  blood 
of  the  Vaudois,  and  crowding  the  statue-books  of 
England  witli  cruel  and  sanguinary  laws, — wliich 
filled  our  dungeons  with  the  persecuted  followers 
of  WicklifFe,  and  strewed  Smithfield  with  the  ashes 
of  the  martyrs. 

It  is  a  favorite  but  iniquitous  proceeding  oi 
party  writers,  when  it  is  their  object  to  blacken  the 
memory  of  those  who  maintained  opinions  adverse 
to  their  own.  to  charge  upon  individuals  the  faults 
and  failings  which  they  partook,  and  could  not 
but  partake,  in  common  with  their  age.  True  it 
is,  tliat  it  never  occurred  to  the  first  reformers  to 
generalize  upon  the  subject  of  a  free  choice  in  reli- 
gion ;  most  surprising  would  the  fact  have  been  if 
it  had.  This  was  left  for  a  subsequent  generation  ; 
it  could  not  have  been  expected  of  them,  nor  was 
it  consistent  with  the  part  assigned  them.  While 
we  duly  reverence  those  venerable  men,  we  deem 
it  no  disparagement  to  them,  as  partakers  of  the 
imperfections  of  humanity,  to  say,  that  had  tiiey 
had  leisure  to  do  so — had  they  contended  ex- 
pressly for  a  general  principle,  rather  than  for  a 
direct  personal  claim,  their  eftbrts  would  in  all 
probability  have  proved  far  less  vigorous  and 
effectual.  But,  in  truth,  the  general  principle  was 
implied  in  the  fact  of  the  deliverance  of  themselves 
and  their  country,  on  the  ground  of  riglit,  from  the 
oppressive  tyranny  of  Rome.  Ttie  stride  that  was 
made  towards  universal  freedom  of  conscience  by 


12  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

Cranmer,  and  the  great  and  good  men  who  were 
associated  with  him,  was  actually  larger  than  the 
state  of  knowledge  and  morality  among  the  people 
could  bear.  If  they  are  not  to  be  compared  for 
a  wise  liberality,  on  this  point,  with  the  authors 
and  legislators  of  the  eighteenth  century,  yet  in 
how  brilliant  relief  do  tlieir  sentiments  as  well  as 
their  conduct  stand  out,  in  the  light  of  humanity 
and  tolerance,  when  we  compare  them  with  their 
opponents,  even  of  the  same  period — when  we  place 
Ridley,  Cranmer,  and  Hooper  by  the  side,  not  of 
the  bitter  persecutors  Gardiner  and  Bonner,  but 
of  the  learned  Warham,  the  accomplished  Tonstal, 
and  the  gifted  Sir  Thomas  More.  Public  opinion 
afterwards  followed,  Zo?2^o  sed  intervallo.  Little 
would  the  people  have  prized  or  understood  an 
enlarged  system  of  toleration,  who  stumbling  in  all 
the  blindness  of  inveterate  popery,  flung  back  with 
brutal  contempt  in  the  faces  of  the  reformers,  the 
inestimable  boon  they  had  secured  for  them,  and 
more  than  once  rushed  into  rebellion  in  favor  of 
an  unmitigated  return  to  the  oppressions  and  the 
mummeries  that  had  beguiled  their  forefathers — 
to  masses,  pilgrimages,  prayers  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  and  the  use  of  images.  Hence  the  ma 
jority  hailed  with  delight  the  national  relapse 
into  all  the  miseries  of  the  worst  times  of  popery, 
in  Mary's  reign. 

The  lapse  of  a  century  of  strife  between  the 
church  of  England  and  the  parties  who  now— 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  lo 

whether  in  consequence  of  men's  natural  unrea- 
sonableness and  discontent  with  tlie  good  they 
possess,  or  of  the  imperfect  state  in  which  the  work 
of  reformation  had  been  left, — rose  into  opposi- 
tion to  her  doctrines,  discipline,  and  immunities, 
was  necessary  to  prepare  the  national  mind  for 
the  effectual  agitation  of  this  great  question.  If 
the  church,  in  the  prosperous  days  of  Elizabeth 
and  James,  maintained  her  prerogatives  against 
the  Puritans  with  the  severity  of  a  parent  assailed 
by  the  unreasonable  clamors  of  rebellious  children, 
these  latter,  however  bitterly  they  complained  of 
the  hardship  of  their  own  position,  never  denied, 
upon  general  principles,  the  right  of  the  former  to 
persecute ; '  their  ardor  for  toleration  was  nothing 
more  than  impatience  of  individual  suffering.'  In 
the  multiplication  of  sects  that  took  place  during 
the  latter  part  of  that  period,  and  in  the  reign  of 
the  unhappy  Charles,  the  animosity  of  each  to- 
wards every  other,  equalled  that  which  all  in 
common  bore  towards  the  establishment.  Each 
strove  for  the  supremacy  of  its  own  opinions — 
none  for  an  equal  charitable  tolerance  of  all  specu- 
lative tenets  alike ;  and  when  the  most  numerous 
and  powerful  of  the  religious  factions  opposed  to 
the  Church  of  England,  at  last  obtained  the  ascend- 
ancy, its  members  proved  too  clearly  by  their 
arrogance  and  persecuting  spirit  how  little  effect 
calamity,  which  softens  and  corrects  the  passions 
of  individuals,  has  in  diminishing  the  hatreds  and 


14  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

smoothing  the  asperities  of  sects  and  parties.  Still 
the  anarchy  of  the  latter  years  of  King  Charles, 
was  the  chaos  in  which  the  light  of  religious  liberty 
was  engendered.  Here  and  there  a  calmer  and 
wiser  spirit  began  to  perceive,  that  the  only  pros- 
pect of  peace  lay  in  the  possibility  of  persuading 
each  to  relinquish  some  portion  of  its  individual 
claims,  in  favor  of  the  whole.  Several  smaller 
publications,  setting  forth  the  justice  and  advan- 
tages of  this  scheme,  had  already  emanated  from 
diiFerent  quarters,  (and  especially  from  among  the 
followers  of  Robert  Brown,)  when  the  church,  now 
the  victim  of  those  severities  which  in  her  hour 
of  prosperity  she,  it  must  be  confessed,  had  not 
scrupled  to  exercise,  and  more  susceptible,  as  it 
seems,  of  the  lessons  of  adversity,  than  some  of 
those  communities  who  had  felt  it  longer,  raised  a 
decisive  and  majestic  voice  in  the  great  cause  of 
religious  toleration. 

The  celebrated  treatise  on  the  Liberty  of 
PRorHESYiNG,  is  scarccly  more  valuable  for  the 
consummate  ability  with  which  it  handles  this 
important  subject,  than  it  is  interesting  for  the 
immediate  circumstances  under  which  it  was  pro- 
duced, and  striking  as  the  production  of  the  friend 
of  Laud,  and  the  favorite  chaplain  of  the  unfortu- 
nate Charles.  The  learning  and  genius  of  Taylor 
obtained  for  him,  about  the  year  1633,  soon  after 
he  had  taken  his  degree  of  M.  A.  at  Cambridge, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  15 

the  favorable  notice  of  that  primate,  to  whom  the 
bitterest  enemies  of  his  person  and  his  memory 
could  never  refuse  the  praise  of  an  accurate  dis- 
cerner  of  merit,  and  a  munificent  patron  of  learn- 
ing. Discovering  in  the  youthful  divine  talents 
capable  of  raising  him  above  the  sphere  of  a  mere 
preacher,  however  popular  or  useful,  Laud  re- 
moved him  to  Oxford,  and  placed  him  in  Univer- 
sity College,  in  order  that  he  might  carry  on  and 
complete  his  studies  without  interruption.  Of  this 
society  he  became  a  fellow,  in  the  year  1636.  In 
the  great  national  struggle  which  followed,  Taylor 
attached  himself  devotedly,  from  taste  and  princi- 
ple as  well  as  gratitude  and  regard,  to  the  cause 
of  the  monarchy  and  the  hierarchy.  He  was 
among  the  first  to  join  the  king  at  Oxford ;  he 
afterwards  attended  the  royal  army  in  his  capa- 
city as  chaplain ;  and  on  the  final  ruin  of  the  king's 
cause,  he  shared  in  the  calamities  which  now  fell 
upon  the  loyal  part  of  the  nation. 

Deprived  of  his  preferment,  he  retired  into 
Wales,  and  having  no  other  resource,  engaged,  for 
the  support  of  his  family,  in  the  irksome  labors 
of  a  school,  at  a  place  called  Newton  Hall,  in 
Carmarthenshire.  The  remoteness  of  his  retreat, 
however,  did  not  screen  him  from  molestation  :  he 
was  several  times  imprisoned,  and  only  released 
through  the  generous  exertions  of  his  friends,  and 
by  the  connivance  of  some  persons  of  influence 


16  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

among  the  ruling  party.  "  But  that  he"  (writes 
the  eloquent  divine,  in  the  Epistle  Dedicatory, 
originally  prefixed  to  the  present  Treatise*)  "  who 
stilleth  the  raging  of  the  sea,  and  the  noise  of  his 
waves,  and  the  madness  of  his  people,  had  pro- 
vided a  plank  for  me,  I  had  been  lost  to  all  the 
opportunities  of  content  or  study.  But  I  know 
not  whether  I  have  been  more  preserved  by  the 
courtesies  of  my  friends,  or  the  gentleness  and 
mercies  of  a  noble  enemy."  Who  the  noble 
enemy  alluded  to  \vas,  is  not  known ;  but  the 
friends  who  chiefly  consoled  the  period  of  his 
adversity — and  he  had  domestic  sorrows  to  dis- 
tress him,  besides  the  loss  of  property  and  prefer- 
ment— were  the  Earl  of  Carbery  and  his  lady, 
whose  residence  was  at  Golden  Grove,  in  Taylor's 
neighborhood.  In  the  bosom  of  this  family  he 
continued  for  many  years  to  enjoy  the  delights  of 
friendship,  and  the  comfort  of  administering  the 
rites  of  religion,  according  to  the  prescribed  forms 
of  the  national  church  ;  it  was  here  also  that  many 
of  his  most  admirable  works  were  composed, 
particularly  the  Life  of  Christ,  the  most  popular, 

*  As  this  Dedication  is  very  long,  and  consists  chiefly  of 
a  recapitulation  of  the  arguments  brought  forward  in  the 
Treatise  itself,  it  had  been  deemed  consistent  with  the  design 
of  tlie  present  publication  to  omit  it.  Some  of  the  facts 
adduced  in  it,  however,  have  been  transferred  to  the  present 
essay,  and  several  of  the  most  interesting  passages  preserved 
to  the  reader  in  the  quotations. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY*  17 

and,  in  many  respects,  the  noblest  of  his  writings^ 
the  Holy  Living  and  Dying,  and  the  greater  part 
of  his  Sermons.  It  was,  however,  in  all  the  fresh- 
ness of  recent  affliction,  while  poverty  and  appre- 
hension reigned  within  his  household,  and  the 
crash  of  the  falling  throne  and  broken  altar  was 
loud  without,  deprived  of  books  and  leisure,  that 
the  work  was  written,  of  the  design  of  which  it 
now  remains  to  give  some  account — a  work  truly 
wonderful,  as  having  received  its  birth  under  such 
untoward  circumstances,  and  which  demonstrates 
how  little  was  required  by  its  accomplished,  author 
for  the  production  of  the  noblest  results  of  literary 
exertion,  besides  his  o^vn  powerful  intellect,  and 
the  unrivaled  stores  of  secular  and  ecclesiastical 
learning  with  which  his  memory  was  furnished. 

The  general  principle  advanced  in  the  Liberty 
OF  Prophesying,  is  this :  tliat  as  truth  on  all 
minor  dogmas  of  religion  is  uncertain,  and  of 
small  moment  in  its  bearings  upon  the  conduct  of 
men,  while  peace  and  charity  are  things  of  un-^ 
doubted  certainty  and  importance,  our  desire  to; 
obtain  the  former  ought  to  yield  to  the  necessity  of 
se<iuring  the  latter ;  and  every  one,  for  the  good 
of  the  community  at  large,  ought  to  tolerate  the 
differences  of  all  others,  while  in  turn  he  receives 
toleration  for  bis  own.  But  as  it  is  indispensable 
somewhere  to  draw  the  line — ^as  some  standard  of 
truth  must  be  acknowledged,  unless  men  were  to 
rush  into  boundless  anarchv,  or  ^ink  into  mere 


18  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

indifference,  of  opinion,  he  proposes  the  confession 
of  the  apostles'  creed,  as  the  test  of  orthodoxy, 
and  condition  of  union  and  communion  among 
Christians. 

A  test  so  liberal  and  comprehensive,  though  we 
might  not  perhaps  have  expected  to  meet  with  its 
advocate  in  one  conversant  in  that  sphere  of  arbi- 
trary prerogative,  to  which  the  author  had  so  long 
been  attached,  was  worthy  of  the  pure  and  bene- 
volent nature  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  naturally 
enough  suggested  by  the  peculiar  circumstances 
under  which  this  splendid  treatise  was  composed : 
that  Taylor's  mind  was  utterly  averse  from  all 
harshness  in  the  exercise  of  authority — that  his 
temper  was  not  only  tolerant  but  tender  towards 
all  men,  is  sufficiently  apparent  to  all  who  are  in 
any  degree  acquainted  with  his  moral  and  prac- 
tical writings;  yet,  had  he  still  continued  the 
admired  orator  of  an  arbitrary  court,  and  the 
caressed  favorite  of  a  prelate  whom  the  coarse 
irritations  of  factious  religionists,  as  much  as  his 
own  disposition  and  principles,  hurried  into  harsh 
and  cruel  measures,  it  is  little  likely  the  world 
had  ever  beheld  the  Liberty  of  Prophesying. 
From  the  melancholy  experience  of  the  past,  the 
present  miserable  wreck  of  all  which  he  regarded 
as  most  dear  and  venerable,  and  the  gloomy 
uncertainty  which  over  Imng  the  future,  he  sought 
refuge  in  the  depths  of  his  own  generous  pity  for 
the  weaknesses  and  errors,  and  in  his  respect  for 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  19 

the  rights,  of  his  fellow-citizens.  "  I  was  deter- 
mined," he  says,  "by  the  consideration  of  the 
present  distemperatures  and  necessities,  by  my 
own  thoughts,  by  the  questions  and  scruples,  the 
sects  and  names,  the  interests  and  animosities 
which  at  this  day,  and  for  some  years  past,  have 
exercised  and  disquieted  Christendom; — being 
very  much  displeased  that  so  many  opinions  and 
new  doctrines  are  commenced  among  us,  but 
more  troubled  that  every  man  that  hath  an  opin- 
ion, thinks  his  own  and  other  men's  salvation  is 
concerned  in  its  maintenance,  but  most  of  all  that 
men  should  be  persecuted  and  afflicted  for  dis- 
agreeing in  such  opinions  which  they  cannot  with 
sufficient  grounds  obtrude  upon  others  necessarily, 
because  they  cannot  propound  them  infallibly,  and 
have  no  warrant  of  Scripture  to  do  so." 

The  person  of  the  king  had  now  been  transfer- 
red from  the  custody  of  the  parliamentary  commis- 
sioners to  that  of  Cromwell  and  the  army — from 
the  hands,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  most,  to  those  of 
the  least  intolerant,  of  the  great  sectarian  parties ; 
and  he  was  accordingly  treated  with  more  indul- 
gence and  respect-  The  author  of  the  Liberty 
OF  Prophesying,  therefore,  may  have  cherished  a 
hope  of  promoting  an  accommodation  between 
the  captive  sovereign  and  his  victorious  subjects, 
which,  however  slender,  sufficed  to  rouse  the  zeal 
of  a  mind  equally  imbued  with  loyalty  to  his  king 
and  regard  for  the  happiness  of  his  fellow-subjects. 


20  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

Taylor's  experience  of  the  temper  of  the  parties 
must  indeed  have  forbidden  the  indulgence  of  any 
very  sanguine  expectation,  as  to  the  effect  of  his 
arguments  in  softening  their  mutual  animosities 
and  dislikes.  On  the  part  of  the  king,  scarcely 
any  thing  remained  to  be  conceded ;  while,  had 
further  concession  been  in  his  power,  such  a  rooted 
opinion  prevailed  of  Charles's  insincerity  in  his 
engagements,  as  must  have  rendered  a  cordial 
reconciliation  impossible.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
arrogance  of  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  extent  of 
their  demands,  had  increased  in  proportion  to  their 
success ;  nor  did  the  indignation  with  which  they 
regarded  the  host  of  wild  sects,  which,  encouraged 
by  their  example,  had  now  grown  to  be  thorns  in 
their  sides,  divert  any  portion  of  their  settled  ha- 
tred from  the  royalists  and  episcopalians.  The 
fluctuations  of  Taylor's  own  mind,  between  his 
earnest  desire  to  do  something  towards  promoting 
the  peace  of  the  king  and  the  safety  of  the  country, 
and  the  fears  he  could  not  conceal,  lest  the  mild 
arguments  of  enlightened  moderation  should  be 
utterly  thrown  away  amid  the  raging  factions  of 
the  time,  are  thus  powerfully  expressed  in  the 
Dedication  already  quoted :  "However,"  says  he, 
"there  are  some  exterminating  spirits  who  think 
God  to  delight  in  human  sacrifices, — yet  if  they 
were  capable  of  cool  and  tame  homilies,  or  would 
hear  men  of  other  opinions  give  a  quiet  account 
without  invincible  resolutions  never  to  alter  their 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  21 

persuasions,  I  am  very  mucli  persuaded  it  would 
not  be  very  hard  to  dispute  such  men  into  mercies, 
and  compliances,  and  tolerations  mutual;  such,  I 
say,  who  are  zealous  for  Jesus  Christ;  than  whose 
doctrine  never  was  any  thing  more  merciful  and 
humane,  whose  lessons  were  softer  than  nard,  or 
the  juice  of  the  Candian  olive.  Upon  the  first 
apprehension,  I  designed  a  discourse  to  this  pur- 
pose, witli  as  much  greediness  as  if  I  had  thought 
it  possible  with  my  arguments  to  have  persuaded 
the  roudi  and  hard-handed  soldiers  to  have  dis- 
banded  presently ;  for  I  had  often  thought  of  the 
prophecy,  that,  in  the  Gospel,  Our  sivords  shall  be 
turned  into  ploughshares^  and  our  spears  into  pru- 
ning-hooks  ;  I  knew  that  no  tittle  spoken  by  God's 
Spirit  could  return  unperformed  and  ineffectual; 
and  I  was  certain,  that  such  was  the  excellency 
of  Christ's  doctrine,  that  if  man  would  obey  it 
Christians  should  never  war  one  against  the  other. 
In  the  mean  time,  I  considered  not,  that  it  was 
predictio  concilii,  non  eventus,  till  I  saw  what  men 
were  now  doing,  and  ever  had  done,  since  the 
heats  and  primitive  fervors  did  cool,  and  the  love 
of  interests  swelled  higher  than  the  love  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  but  then  on  the  other  side,  I  began  to 
fear  that  whatever  I  could  say  would  be  as  in- 
effectual as  it  would  be  unreasonable;  for  if 
those  excellent  words  which  our  blessed  Master 
spake,  could  not  charm  tlie  tumult  of  our 
spirits,  I  had  little  reason  to  hope  that  one  of 


22  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  meanest  and  most  ignorant  of  his  servants 
could  advance  the  end  of  that  which  he  calls  his 
great,  and  his  old,  and  his  new  commandments, 
so  well  as  the  excellency  of  his  own  Spirit  and 
discourses  could.  And  yet  since  He  who  knew 
every  event  of  things,  and  the  success  and  efficacy 
of  every  doctrine,  and  that  very  much  of  it  to  most 
men  and  all  of  it  to  some  men  would  be  ineffec- 
tual, yet  was  pleased  to  consign  our  duty  that  it 
might  be  a  direction  to  them  that  would,  and  a. 
conviction  and  testimony  against  them  that  would 
not  obey,  I  thought  it  might  not  misbecome  my 
duty  and  endeavors,  to  plead  for  peace,  and 
charity,  and  forgiveness,  and  permissions  mutual, 
although  I  had  reason  to  believe  that  such  is  the 
iniquity  of  men,  and  they  so  indisposed  to  receive 
such  impresses,  tliat  I  had  as  good  plough  the 
sands  or  till  the  air,  as  persuade  such  doctrines, 
which  destroy  men's  interests,  and  serve  no  end 
but  the  great  end  of  a  happy  eternity  and  what  is 
in  order  to  it.  But  because  the  events  of  things 
are  in  God's  disposition,  and  I  knew  them  not ; 
and  because,  if  I  had  known  my  good  purposes 
would  be  totally  ineffectual  as  to  others,  yet  my 
own  designation  and  purposes  would  be  of  advan- 
tage to  myself,  who  might  from  God's  mercy 
expect  the  retribution  which  he  is  pleased  to 
promise  to  all  pious  intendments;  I  resolved  to 
encounter  with  all  objections." 

To  us  it  appears  from  the  general  tone  of  this 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  23 

great  work,  that  altliough  its  gifted  author  was 
willing  to  take  advantage  of  the  least  chance  that 
remained  of  bringing  back  the  minds  of  the  lead- 
ing persons,  on  all  sides,  to  a  friendly  and  chari- 
table temper,  yet  his  real  hope  of  a  termination  to 
the  sufferings  and  distractions  which  the  nation 
labored  under,  rather  reposed  upon  the  good 
sense  and  right  feeling  of  the  people,  generally ; 
and  that  to  them  it  is  therefore  to  be  regarded  as 
mainly  addressed.  Those  religious  disputes, 
which  had  nearly  brought  the  country  to  the  brink 
of  ruin,  had  no  reference  to  matters  essential  to 
salvation,  but  were  confined  to  points  indifferent 
or  of  secondary  moment.  "For  my  own  particu- 
lar," he  exclaims,  *'I  cannot  but  expect,  that  God 
in  his  justice  should  enlarge  the  bounds  of  the 
Turkish  empire,  or  some  other  way  punish  Chris- 
tians, by  reason  of  their  pertinacious  disputing 
about  things  unnecessary,  undeterminable,  and 
unprofitable,  and  for  their  hating  and  persecuting 
their  brethren,  which  should  be  as  dear  to  them 
as  their  own  lives,  for  not  consenting  to  one 
another's  follies  and  senseless  vanities.  And  in 
these  triftes  and  impertinences  men  are  curiously 
busy,  while  they  neglect  those  glorious  precepts  of 
Christianity  and  holy  life,  which  are  the  glories 
of  our  religion,  and  would  enable  us  to  a  happy 
eternity."  The  impropriety  of  such  disputes  there- 
fore, and  the  necessity  of  mutual  forbearance  in 
regard  to  the  points  in  question,  it  is  his  object  to 


24  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

make  appai'ent,  not  only  by  proving  their  general 
uncertainty,  as  compared  with  those  essential  ar- 
ticles of  the  faith  in  which  all  Christians  are  agreed, 
but  further  by  showing  at  length  the  utter  falli- 
bility and  incompetence  of  the  means  by  which 
men  arrive  at  their  so  confident  conclusions,  and 
the  authorities  to  which  they  appeal  with  so  much 
boldness.  He  alleges  the  difficulty  of  expound- 
ing Scripture  in  regard  to  speculative  points, — the 
uncertainty  of  traditions, — the  fallibility  of  popes, 
councils,  fathers,  and  even  of  the  cliurch  in  its 
diffusive  capacity,  as  being  all  liable  to  those  in- 
numerable causes  of  error  and  mistake,  to  which 
the  human  mind  is  ever  exposed, — the  innocency 
of  theoretical  error  and  invincible  ignorance, — the 
force  of  inveterate  prejudice,  and  the  almost  equal 
liability  of  all  men  alike,  not  excepting  the  wisest 
and  the  best,  to  be  mistaken, — as  grounds  and  in- 
centives to  general  charity  towards  others,  and 
motives  to  humility  in  each  man's  estimate  of  his 
own  opinions ;  while  yet  the  work  cannot  in  ge- 
neral be  fairly  charged  with  any  tendency  to  ex- 
tenuate the  criminality  or  danger  of  such  dogmas, 
justly  branded  with  the  mark  of  heresy,  as  are 
subversive  of  morality  in  individuals,  and  of  the 
good  order  of  society. 

Though  accomplished,  even  beyond  his  contem- 
poraries, in  an  age  abounding  in  learned  theolo- 
gians, in  the  use  of  every  weapon  of  polemical 
warfare,  the  mind  of  Jeremy  Taylor  was  not  formed 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY. 


for  controversy ;  and  wlien  lie  engaged  in  it,  it  was 
never  for  the  triumph  of  an  opinion,  but  for  the 
extension  of  truth  and  the  promotion  of  godliness. 
Nevertheless,  ennobled  as  every  subject  was  to  his 
conception  by  the  grand  general  views  which  his 
heavenward  eye,  even  in  the  midst  of  discussions 
on  inferior  questions,  ceased  not  to  rest  upon,  he 
is  seen  to  most  advantage  in  those  works  where  the 
wealth  of  his  most  affectionate  heart,  and  the  im- 
passioned sublimity  of  his  imagination,  coukl  be 
fully  displayed.  The  reader  who  would  become 
acquainted  with  what  this  celebrated  writer  truly 
was,  as  well  as  he  who  would  seek  from  his  works 
the  highest  profit  which  can  be  derived  from  the 
study  of  the  uninspired  labors  of  the  human  mind, 
must  pass  unread  the  Dudor  Dubitantium,' — 
though  the  favorite  of  its  author  himself, — and 
hasten  through  the  pages  even  of  the  Liberty 
OF  Prophesying,  in  order  to  luxuriate  amid  the 
holy  thoughts  and  glowing  imagery,  which  abound- 
in  his  devotional  and  moral  writings — in  the  Great 
Exemplar,  or  Life  of  Christ — the  Holy  Living 
and  dying,  and  his  truly  wonderful  Sermons.  As 
far,  however,  as  the  nature  of  the  following  work 
admitted  the  peculiar  endowments  of  the  author 
to  appear,  they  will  in  every  page  be  recognized. 
Its  various  and  minute  learning,  its  logical  pre- 
cision, the  majestic  march  of  its  eloquent  language 
but  especially  its  unequalled  tone  of  moderation 
and  candor,  present  a  combination,  which,  toge- 
3 


2b  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

ther  with  the  ever  fresh  interest  of  the  subject,  en- 
ables it  to  maintain  its  place,  notwithstanding  the 
celebrity  of  some  others,  and  especially  of  that 
of  Locke,  as  the  most  distinguished  treatise  on 
Religious  Liberty  in  our  language. 

While,  however,  we  glory  in  the  perfect  can- 
dor and  Christian  mildness  whicli  appear  in  the 
following  pages,  as  being  truly  in  the  spirit  of  the 
best  times  of  that  church  of  which  its  author  is  so 
remarkable  an  ornament,  we  feel  that  it  would 
scarcely  become  us,  on  presenting  our  countrymen 
with  an  edition  intended  for  the  widest  and  most 
general  circulation,  to  forbear  pointing  out  one  or 
two  instances  in  which  the  singular  goodness  of 
his  heart  and  his  extreme  desire  of  peace  are 
thought  to  have  carried  him  somewhat  too  far.  In 
his  observations,  here  and  elsewhere,  on  the  pecu- 
liar tenets  of  the  church  of  Rome,  there  is  nothing 
to  disapprove :  they  exhibit  the  principles  of  our 
reformers,  softened  and  mellowed  by  time  and 
those  reviving  charities  which  w^ould  naturally 
reappear,  when  all  occasions  for  irritating  colli- 
sion between  the  two  churches  w^ere  removed. 
That  he  was  less  judicious  in  his  labored  apology 
for  the  principles  then  professed  by  the  Anabapt- 
ists, we  have  his  own  acknowledgment,  in  the  fact 
that  he  afterwards  wrote  a  tract  to  explain  liimself 
more  at  large  on  this  head,  in  consequence  of  the 
offence  taken  at  the  laxity  of  his  language.  This 
was  added   to   the   subsequent  editions   of  the 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY.  27 

work  ;*  it  was  followed  likewise  bj  a  treatise  in 
favor  of  infant  baptism,  a  further  qualification  of 
the  celebrated  nineteenth  section,  afterwards  in- 
corporated into  the  Great  Exemplar,  of  which 
beautiful  work  it  forms  the  sixth  discourse.  Per- 
haps we  may  also  venture  to  add,  that  less  indul- 
gence would  have  been  shown  towards  those 
opinions,  the  origin  of  which  may  be  traced  to  the 
heresy  of  Arius,  had  the  excellent  writer  lived  to 
see  the  period  when  the  doctrines  to  which  we 
allude,  at  that  time  scarcely  acknowledged  by  a 
small  and  obscure  party,  came  to  be  received  with 
favor  in  the  high  places  of  the  church. 

It  has  been  brought  as  a  charge  against  Taylor, 
in  relation  to  the  argument  of  this  work,  that  he 
bases  his  scheme  of  toleration  on  the  weaknesses 
of  mankind  which  present  a  moral  claim  to  tender- 
ness and  indulgence,  rather  than  on  the  indefea- 
sible right  of  every  human  being  to  the  free 
exercise  of  his  own  thoughts  and  opinions.  The 
difference  results  more  from  different  views  of 
men's  capacities  to  enjoy  freedom,  the  consequence 
perhaps  of  more  or  less  experience  of  human  life, 
than  from  any  want  of  sympathy  with  their  just 
claims,  on  the  part  of  those  who  adopt  the  former 

*  This  addition  is  not  reprinted  in  the  present  volume, 
from  a  wish  to  avoid  exhausting  the  attention  of  the  general 
reader,  by  unnecessarily  confining  it,  through  so  many  pages, 
to  the  minute  details  of  a  question  of  no  great  interest  in  our 
times. 


28  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

method.  That  the  soul  of  Taylor  took  a  generous 
interest  in  every  noble  struggle  of  humanity,  and 
responded  to  every  sentiment  inspired  by  the 
love  of  justice,  will  scarcely  be  called  in  question 
by  any  one  familiar  with  his  various  writings  of  an 
ethical  and  practical  character.  But  there  was, 
in  his  days,  no  need  of  the  voice  of  such  an  advo- 
cate to  swell  the  clamorous  cry  for  immunities, 
which  every  man  eagerly  demanded  for  himself, 
and  as  eagerly  denied  to  his  neighbor.  He  iiad 
had  a  long  and  painful  experience,  how  little 
individual  impatience  of  restraint  tended  to  secure 
equal  toleration  for  all ;  and  it  was  natural  that 
in  seeking  that  object  he  should  follow  an  oppo- 
site course.  Besides,  the  extent  of  natural  right 
must  ever  be  matter  of  debate  and  uncertainty, 
and  its  assertion  liable  to  dangerous  abuse,  whereas 
it  is  evident  to  all  that  the  limits  of  charity 
towards  our  brethren  cannot  be  pushed  too  far, 
and  that  the  freest  use  of  it  is  consistent  with  the 
safety  of  all  parties.  Again,  the  claim  of  right 
can  be  a  ground,  at  best,  only  for  negative  tolera- 
tion ;  it  vindicates  the  liberty  .of  the  individual, 
but  provides  him  with  no  sphere  for  its  exercise  ; 
the  toleration,  on  the  contrary,  contemplated  in 
the  subjoined  treatise,  is  positive  and  active.  Its 
author  recommends  something  more  than  a  strenu- 
ous assertion  of  our  own  freedom,  with  merely  a 
cold  acquiescence  in  that  of  others  :  he  proposes 
the  practise  of  the  greater,  as  best  securing  the 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY,  59 

less- — that  opposing  parties  should  not  only  refi-ain 
from  interfering  with  each  other,  but  should 
mutally  hold  forth  the  right  hand  of  fellowship, 
and,  though  difFeiing  invincibly  on  speculative 
articles,  should  communicate  in  tlie  profession  of 
tlie  same  essentials,  and  in  the  reciprocation  of 
all  the  brotherly  and  becoming  charities  of  life. 

In  his  seclusion  at  Golden  Grove,  or  in  its 
neighborhood,  Taylor  continued  to  reside  until  the 
year  1658,  when  at  the  earnest  instance  of  his 
friends  he  removed  to  Lisburn,  near  Portmore, 
the  seat  of  the  Ea^^l  of  Conway,  in  the  north  of 
Ireland,  where  he  accepted  a  lectureship  under  the 
patronage  of  that  nobleman.  At  the  period  of  the 
restoration,  he  chanced  to  be  in  London ;  and 
thus,  as  one  of  the  tried  and  valuable  friends  of 
monarchical  and  episcopal  government,  he  imme- 
diately fell  under  the  favorable  notice  of  the  king, 
and  was  shortly  after  nominated  to  the  bishopric  of 
Down  and  Connor,  to  which  the  small  adjacent 
see  of  Dromore  was  subsequently  added.  It  was 
fortunate  for  Bishop  Taylor's  peace,  though  not  for 
the  church's  advantage,  that  the  remoteness  of  his 
dioceses  placed  him  far  from  the  sphere  of  the 
profligate  court  of  the  second  Charles,  and  se- 
cured him  from  any  sb.are  in  the  public  measures 
of  his  reign.  This  was  one  of  the  few  periods — 
and  the  last- — over  which  the  filial  admirers  of  the 
churcii  of  England  may  desire  to  draw  a  veil.  The 


30  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

age  of  the  cruel  persecutions  in  Scotland^  and 
of  the  perfidious  severities  practised  towards  the 
nonconformist  at  home, — when  the  church  of  En- 
gland stopped  to  copy,  against  the  Presbyterians, 
the  worst  parts  of  their  own  intolerant  conduct, 
when  the  door  of  reconciliation  was  closed  in  the 
wantonness  of  power,  and  the  foundations  of  mo- 
dern dissent  laid  upon  an  ever-widening  basis, — 
presents  a  spectacle,  to  which  v/e  still  revert  with 
sorrow  not  unmixed  with  sliame.  What,  then, 
must  have  been  the  pain  with  which  it  was  con- 
templated, at  the  time,  by  the  zealous  advocate 
of  fraternal  and  enlightened  toleration  ?  He  found 
his  consolation,  we  may  hope,  in  the  careful  dis- 
charge of  his  episcopal  functions  in  occasionally 
adding  to  the  list  of  his  invaluable  writings,  in 
the  employments  of  a  devotion  as  impassioned 
and  seraphic,  as  is  consistent  with  the  salutary 
equilibrium  of  the  l^iculties  of  the  human  mind, 
and,  doubtless,  in  the  reflection,  which  must  ever 
attend  the  authors  of  those  distinguished  works  of 
genius,  whose  object  is  the  promotion  of  God's 
glory  and  the  honor  and  welfare  of  his  creatures, 
that  though  the  work  through  which,  in  the  prime 
of  his  mature  faculties,  he  had  endeavored  to 
instil  into  his  divided  country  the  wisdom  of  for- 
bearance and  Christian  love,  had  as  yet  produced 
no  visible  fruits,  it  had  not  been  "  cast  upon  the 
waters''  in  vain  ;  but  would  in  due  time  be  found, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  bl 

though  "  after  many  days,"  to  have  been  concur- 
ring with  other  causes  to  secure  for  posterity  the 
permanent  blessings  of  religious  peace. 

We  have  alluded  with  all  plainness  to  the  errors 
of  the  governors  of  our  church,  in  periods  when 
exemption  from  such  errors  was  not  the  rule,  even 
among  Protestants,  but  tlie  singular  exception; 
and  thus,  as  her  fearless  and  aftectionate  children, 
we  feel  we  may  be  allowed  to  speak.  For,  (to 
adopt  the  language  of  a  contemporary  writei-.) 
"  why  should  a  clergyman  of  the  present  day  feel 
interested  in  their  defence  ?  Surely  it  is  sufficient 
for  the  warmest  partisan  of  our  establishment, 
that  he  can  assert  with  truth,- — when  our  church 
persecuted,  it  was  on  mistaken  principles  lield  in 
common  by  all  Christendom.  We  can  say,  that 
our  church,  apostolical  in  its  faith,  primitive  in  its 
ceremonies,  unequaled  in  its  liturgical  forms ; 
that  our  church,  which  has  kindled  and  displayed 
more  bright  and  burning  lights  of  genius  and 
learning,  than  all  other  Protestant  churches  since 
the  Reformation,  was  least  intolerant,  when  all 
Christians  unhappily  deemed  a  species  of  intoler- 
ance their  religious  duty ;  that  bishops  of  our 
church  were  among  the  first  that  contended 
against  this  error ;  and  finally,  that  since  the 
Revolution,  when  tolerance  became  general,  the 
Church  of  England  in  a  tolerating  age,  lias  shown 
herself  eminently  tolerant." 


32  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

It  is  not  long  since  we  witnessed  the  erasure, 
from  our  statute-books  of  the  only  remaining  acts 
of  the  legislature  which  could  be  regarded  as 
restraints  upon  the  most  perfect  liberty  of  con- 
science ;  and  cordially  shall  we,  for  our  part 
rejoice  in  their  removal,  should  the  event  prove, 
that  sufficient  care  has  been  taken  for  the  preser- 
vation of  that  venerable  establishment,  in  which 
the  deeply  reflective  writer  just  cited,  "  sees,"  he 
tells  us,  "  the  greatest,  if  not  the  sole  safe  huhvark 
of  toleration."  We  cannot,  however,  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  fact  of  danger  to  be  apprehended  from 
the  existence,  in  our  times, — not  indeed  of  a  sect 
or  party,  but — of  a  multitude  of  persons,  whose 
declared  opinions  place  them  beyond  the  pale  of 
all  parties  and  sects  alike,  who  w^illfully  mistake 
for  toleration,  a  licence  to  overleap  and  lay  v^^aste 
all  the  defences  of  the  public  faith.  Yet  even 
here  we  are  willing  rather  to  hail  a  motive  to 
exertion,  than  to  acknowledge  a  ground  of  dis- 
couragement; inasmuch  as  out  of  even  this  perni- 
cious error  we  look  to  find  the  beneficent  liand  of 
the  Supreme  Ruler  of  events  extracting  good:  for 
Ids  Providence  has  supplied  the  means  of  cure  in 
the  very  excess  of  the  evil,  which  in  hurting  some, 
offending  and  rousing  manj^,  and  endangering  the 
comfort  of  all,  will  be  the  means  of  bringing  men 
back  to  reflection,  and  thence  to  a  peaceable  sub- 
mission to  such  sober  and  reasonable  reo-ulatlons 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY.  33 

for  securing  the  full  effects  of  Christianitj  upon 
this  great  nation,  as  will  be  found  equally  condu- 
cive to  the  welfare  of  the  individual,  and  to  the 
progressive  improvement  of  the  human  race. 

R.  C. 

London,  December,  1S33. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

INTEODUCTION  -  -  -  -  -  -..-39 

SECTION  r. 
Nature  of  Faith 45 

SECTION    II. 

Of  Heresy  and  the  nature  of  it,  and  that  it  is  to  be 
accounted  according  to  the  strict  capacity  of  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  not  in  opinions  speculative  ;  nor  ever 
to  pious  persons 63 

SECTIO.V   III. 

Of  the  difficulty  and  uncertainty  of  arguments  from 
Scripture,  in  questions  not  simply  necessary,  not 
literally  determined 119 

SECTION    IV. 

Of  the  difficulty  of  expounding  Scripture  -        -     140 

SECTION    V 

Of  the  insufficiency  and  uncertainty  of  Tradition  to 
expound  Scripture,  or  determine  Questions     -         -     154- 

35 


36  CONTENTS. 

Page 


SKCTION   VI. 


Of  the    uncertainty   and    insufficiency  of   Councils 
Ecclesiastical  to  the  same  purpose  -        -        .    i80 


SECTION   VII. 


Of  the  fallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  the  uncertainty  of 
his  expounding  Scripture,  and  resolving  Questions  -    214 


SECTION    VIII. 


Of  the  disability  of  Fathers  or  Writers  Ecc  esi- 
astical,  to  determine  our  Questions  with  certainty 
and  truth 252 


SECTION    IX. 


Of  the  incompetency  of  the  Church  in  its  diffusive 
capacity  to  be  judge  of  Controversies,  and  the  im- 
pertinency  of  that  pretence  of  the  Spirit         -        -    2C7 


SECTION   X. 


Of  the  authority  of  Reason,  and  that  it  proceeding 
upon  best  grounds  is  the  best  judge        -        -        -     272 


SECTION    XI. 


Of  some  causes  of  error  in  the  exercise  of  Reason 
which  are  exculpate  in  themselves  -        -        .    281 


SECTION  XII. 


Of  the  innocency  of  error  in  opinion,  in  a  pious 
Person 300 


CONTENTS.  37 

Page 
SECTION  xrii. 

or  the  deportment  to  be  used  towards  Persons  dis- 
agreeing, and  the  reasons  vvliy  they  are  not  to  be 
punished  with  death,  &c. 308 

SECTION   XIV. 

Of  the  practice  of  Christian  Churches  towards 
persons  disagreeing,  and  when  Persecution  first 
came  in 327 

SECTION   XV. 

How  far  tiie  Church  or  Governors  may  art  to  the 
restraining  false  or  differing  opinions       -         -         -    338 

SECTION   XVI. 

Whether  it  be  lawful  for  a  Prince  to  give  Toleration 
to  several  Religions 342 

SECTION   XVII, 

Of  Compliance  with  disagreeing  Persons,  or  weak 
consciences  in  general 348 

SECTION   XVIII. 

A  particular  consideration  of  the  opinions  of  the 
Anabaptists 354 

SECTION  xrx. 

That  there  may  be  no  Toleration  of  Doctrines  incon- 
sistent with  Piety  or  the  Public  Good      -        -        -    386 
4 


38  CONTENTS. 

Page 

SECTION    XX. 

How  far  the  Religion  of  the  Church  of  Rome  is 
tolerable 390 

SECTION    XXI. 

Of  the   Duty   of  particular   Churches    in   allovving 
Communion  -        - 408 

SECTION  xxri. 

That  particular  men  may  communicate  with  Churches 
of  different  persuasions,  and  how  far  they  ma)^  do  it    411 


THE 


LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  infinite  variety  of  opinions  in  matters  of 
religion,  as  they  have  troubled  Christendom  with 
interests,  factions,  and  partialities,  so  have  they 
caused  great  divisions  of  the  heart,  and  variety  of 
thoughts  and  designs  amongst  pious  and  prudent 
men.  For  they  all,  seeing  the  inconveniences 
which  the  disunion  of  persuasions  and  opinions  have 
produced  directly  or  accidentally,  have  thought 
themselves  obliged  to  stop  this  inundation  of  mis- 
chiefs, and  h?.ve  made  attempts  accordingly.  But 
it  hath  happened  to  most  of  them  as  to  a  mistaken 
physician,  who  gives  excellent  physic  but  misap- 
plies it,  and  so  misses  of  his  cure.  So  have  these 
men :  their  attempts  have  been  ineftectual ;  for 
they  put  their  help  to  a  wrong  part,  or  they  have 
endeavored  to  cure  the  symptoms,  and  have  let 
the  disease  alone  till  it  seemed  incurable.  Some 
have  endeavored  to  reunite  these  fractions,  by 
propounding  such  a  guide  which  tliey  v*Tre  all 

"39 


40  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

bound  to  follow  ;  hoping  that  the  unity  of  a  guide 
would  have  persuaded  unity  of  minds  ;  but  who 
this  guide  should  be,  at  last  became  such  a  ques- 
tion, that  it  was  made  part  of  tlie  lire  that  was  to 
be  quenched,  so  far  was  it  from  extinguisliing  any 
part  of  the  llamo.  (Jthers  thought  of  a  rule,  and 
this  must  be  the  means  of  union,  or  nothing  could 
do  it.  But  supposing  all  the  world  had  been 
agreed  of  this  rule,  yet  the  interpretation  of  it  was 
so  full  of  variety  that  this  also  became  part  of  the 
disease  for  which  the  cure  was  pretended.  All 
men  resolved  upon  this,  that  though  they  yet  had 
not  hit  upon  the  right,  yet  some  way  must  be 
thought  upon  to  reconcile  differences  in  opinion  ; 
thinking,  so  long  as  this  variety  should  last,  Christ's 
kingdom  was  not  advanced,  and  the  work  of  the 
gospel  went  on  but  slowly.  Few  men  in  the  mean 
time  considered,  that  so  long  as  men  had  such  va- 
riety of  principles,  such  several  constitutions,  edu- 
cations, tempers,  and  distempers,  hopes,  interests, 
and  weaknesses,  de2;rees  of  lidit,  and  de2;rees  of 
Understanding,  it  was  impossible  all  should  be  of 
one  mind.  And  what  is  impossible  to  be  done  is 
not  necessary  it  should  be  done ;  and  therefore, 
although  variety  of  opinions  was  impossible  to  be 
curcci,  (and  they  who  attempted  it  did  like  him 
who  claps  his  shoulder  to  the  ground  to  stop  an 
earthquake,)  yet  the  inconveniences  arising  from 
it  might  possibly  be  cured,  not  by  uniting  their 
beliets, — that  was  to  be  despaired  of, — but  by  cur- 
ing that  which  caused  these  mischiefs,  and  acci- 
dental inconveniences  of  their  disagreeings.  For 
although  these  inconveniences,  which  every  man 
sees  and  feels,  were  consequent  to  this  diversity 
of  persuasions,  yet  it  was  but  accidently  and  by 
chance ;  inasmuch  as  vye  see  that  in  many  things, 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  41 

and  thej  of  great  concernment,  men  allow  to 
themselves  and  to  each  other  a  liberty  of  dis- 
agreeing, and  no  hurt  neither.  And  certainly  if 
diversity  of  opinions  were  of  itself  the  cause  of 
mischiefs,  it  would  be  so  ever,  that  is,  regularly  and 
universally,  (but  that  we  see  it  is  not :)  for  there 
are  disputes  in  Christendom  concerningmatters  of 
greater  concernment  than  most  of  those  opinions 
that  distinguish  sects  and  make  factions  ;  and  yet 
because  men  are  permitted  to  differ  in  those  great 
matters,  such  evils  are  not  consequent  to  such 
differences  as  ai'e  to  the  uncharitable  managing; 
of  smaller  and  more  inconsiderable  questions.  It 
is  of  greater  consequence  to  believe  right  ifi  the 
question  of  the  validity  or  invalidity  of  a  death -bed 
repentance,  than  to  believe  aright  in  the  question 
of  purgatory ;  and  the  consequences  of  the  doctrine 
of  predetermination,  are  of  deeper  and  more 
material  consideration  than  the  products  of  the 
lawfulness  or  unlawfulness  of  private  masses ;  and 
yet  these  great  concernments,  where  a  liberty  of 
prophesying  in  these  questions  hath  been  permit- 
ted, hath  made  no  distinct  communiou,  no  sects 
of  Christians,  and  the  others  have,  and  so  liave 
these  too  in  those  places  where  they  have  peremp- 
torily been  determined  on  either  side.  Since 
then  if  men  are  quiet  and  charitable  in  some 
disagreeings,  that  then  and  there  the  inconvenience 
ceases,  if  they  were  so  in  all  others  where  lawfully 
they  might,  (and  they  may  in  most,)  Christendom 
should  be  no  longer  rent  in  pieces,  but  would  be 
redintegrated  in  a  new  Pentecost ;  and  although 
the  Spirit  of  God  did  rest  upon  us  in  divided 
tongues,  yet  so  long  as  those  tongues  were  of  fire 
not  to  kindle  strife,  but  to  warm  our  affections 
and  inflame  our  charities,  we  should  find  that  this 
4* 


42  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS* 

•  variety  of  opinions  in  several  persons  would  be 
looked  upon  as  an  argument  only  of  diversity  of 
operations,  while  the  Spirit  is  the  same  ;  and  that 
another  man  believes  not  so  well  as  I,  is  only  an 
argument  that  I  have  a  better  and  a  clearer  illu- 
mination than  he,  that  I  have  a  better  gift  than 
he,  received  a  special  grace  and  favor,  and  excel 
him  in  this,  and  am  perhaps  excelled  by  him  in 
many  more.  And  if  we  all  impartially  endeavor 
to  find  a  truth,  since  this  endeavor  and  search 
only  is  in  our  power,  (that  we  shall  find  it,  being 
ab  extra,  a  gift  and  an  assistance  extrinsical,)  I 
can  see  no  reason  wiiy  this  pious  endeavor  to  find 
out  truth  shall  not  be  of  more  force  to  unite  us  in 
the  bonds  of  charity,  than  his  misery  in  missing  it 
shall  be  to  disunite  us.  So  that  since  a  union  of 
persuasion  is  impossible  to  be  attained,  if  we 
would  attempt  the  cure  by  such  remedies  as  are 
apt  to  enkindle  and  increase  charity,  I  am  confi- 
dent we  might  see  a  blessed  peace  would  be  the 
reward  and  crown  of  such  endeavors. 

But  men  are  now-a-days,  and  indeed  always 
have  been,  since  the  expiration  of  the  first  blessed 
ages  of  Christianity,  so  in  love  with  their  own 
fancies  and  opinions,  as  to  think  faith  and  all 
Christendom  is  concerned  in  their  support  and 
maintenance  ;  and  whoever  is  not  so  fond  and  does 
not  dandle  them  like  themselves,  it  grows  up  to  a 
quarrel,  which  because  it  is  in  'materia  theobglac 
is  made  a  quarrel  in  religion,  and  God  is  entitled 
to  it ;  and  then  if  you  are  once  tliought  an  enemy 
to  God,  it  is  our  duty  to  persecute  you  even  to 
death,  we  do  God  good  service  in  it ;  when,  if  we 
should  examine  the  matter  rightly,  the  question  is 
either  in  materia  non  revelata,  or  minus  evidenti, 
or  non  necessariay  either  it  is  not  revealed,  or  not 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  43 

SO  clearly,  but  that  wise  and  honest  men  maybe 
of  different  minds,  or  else  it  is  not  of  the  founda- 
tion of  faith,  but  a  remote  superstructure,  or  else 
of  mere  speculation,  or  perhaps,  when  all  comes 
to  all,  it  is  a  false  opinion,  or  a  matter  of  human 
interest,  that  we  have  so  zealously  contended  for  ; 
for  to  one  of  these  heads  most  of  the  disputes  of 
Christendom  may  be  reduced ;  so  that  I  believe 
the  present  factions  (or  the  most)  are  from  the 
same  cause  which  St.  Paul  observed  in  tlie  Corin- 
thian schism,  '  When  there  are  divisions  among 
you,  are  ye  not  carnal  r'  It  is  not  the  differing 
opinions  that  is  the  cause  of  the  present  ruptures, 
but  want  of  charity  ;  it  is  not  the  variety  of  under- 
standings, but  the  disunion  of  wills  and  affections ; 
it  is  not  the  several  principles,  but  the  several  ends 
that  cause  our  miseries:  our  opinions  commence  and 
are  upheld  according  as  our  turns  are  served  and 
our  interests  are  preserved,  and  there  is  no  cure 
for  us  but  piety  and  charity.  A  holy  life  will 
make  our  belief  holy,  if  we  consult  not  humanity 
and  its  imperfections  in  the  choice  of  our  religion, 
but  search  for  truth  without  designs,  save  only  of 
acquiring  heaven,  and  then  be  as  careful  to  pre- 
serve charity,  as  we  were  to  get  a  point  of  faith : 
I  am  much  persuaded  we  should  find  out  more 
truths  by  this  means  ;  or  however  (which  is  the 
main  of  all)  we  shall  be  secured  though  we  miss 
them  ;  and  then  we  are  well  enough. 

For  if  it  be  evinced  that  one  heaven  shall  hold 
men  of  several  opinions,  if  the  unity  of  faith  be 
not  destroyed  by  that  whicli  men  call  differing 
religions,  and  if  an  unity  of  charity  be  the  duty 
of  us  all  even  towards  persons  that  are  not  per- 
suaded of  every  proposition  we  believe,  then  I 
would  fain  know  to  what  purpose  are  all  those 


44  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

stirs  and  great  noises  in  Christendom  ;  those 
names  of  faction,  the  several  names  of  churches 
not  distinguished  bj  the  division  of  kingdoms,  the 
church  obeying  the  government,*  which  was  the 
primitive  rule  and  canon,  but  distinguished  by 
names  of  sects  and  men.  These  are  all  become 
instruments  of  hatred  ;  tlience  come  schisms  and 
parting  of  communions,  and  then  persecutions, 
and  then  wars  and  rebellion,  and  then  the  disso- 
lutions of  all  friendships  and  societies.  All  these 
mischiefs  proceed  not  from  this,  that  all  men  are 
not  of  one  mind,  for  that  is  neither  necessary  nor 
possible,  but  that  every  opinion  is  made  an  article 
of  faith,  every  article  is  a  ground  of  a  quarrel, 
every  quarrel  makes  a  faction,  every  faction  is 
zealous,  and  all  zeal  pretends  for  God,  and  what- 
soever is  for  God  cannot  be  too  much.  We  by 
this  time  are  come  to  that  pass,  we  think  we  love 
not  God  except  we  hate  our  brother  ;  and  we 
have  not  the  virtue  of  religion,  unless  we  perse- 
cute all  religions  but  our  own  :  for  lukewarniness 
is  so  odious  to  God  and  man,  that  we,  proceeding 
furiously  upon  these  mistakes,  by  supposing  we  pre- 
serve the  body,  we  destroy  the  soul  of  religion  ; 
or  by  being  zealous  for  faith,  or  which  is  all  one, 
for  that  which  we  mistake  for  faith,  we  are  cold 
in  charity,  and  so  lose  tlie  reward  of  both. 

All  these  errors  and  mischiefs  must  be  disco- 
vered and  cured,  and  that  is  the  purpose  of  this 
discourse. 

*   Ut  ecclesia  sequatur  impenum. — Optat.  B.  iii. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  45 


SECTION  I. 

Nature  of  Faitlu 

First,  then,  it  is  of  great  concernment  to  know  the 
nature  and  integrity  of  Faith :  for  there  begins  our 
first  and  great  mistake.  For  faith,  although  it  be  of 
great  excellency,  yet  when  it  is  taken  for  a  habit 
intellectual,  it  hath  so  little  room  and  so  narrow  a 
capacity,  that  it  cannot  lodge  thousands  of  those 
opinions  which  pretend  to  be  of  her  family. 

For  although  it  be  necessary  for  us  to  believe 
whatsoever  we  know  to  be  revealed  of  God,- — and 
so  every  man  does,  that  believes  there  is  a  God, — 
yet  it  is  not  necessary,  concerning  many  things,  to 
know  that  God  hath  revealed  them ;  that  is,  we 
may  be  ignorant  of,  or  doubt  concerning  the  pro- 
positions, and  indifferently  maintain  either  part, 
when  the  question  is  not  concerning  God's  veracity, 
but  whether  God  hath  said  so,  or  no :  that  which 
is  of  the  foundation  of  faith,  that  only  is  necessary ; 
and  the  knowing  or  not  knowing  of  that,  the  be- 
lieving or  disbelieving  it,  is  that  only  which,  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  thing  to  be  believed,  is  in  imme- 
diate and  necessary  order  to  salvation  or  damna- 
tion. 

Now,  all  the  reason  and  demonstration  of  the 
world  convinces  us,  that  this  foundation  of  faith,  or 
the  great  adequate  object  of  the  faith  that  saves  us, 
is  that  great  inysteriousness  of  Christianity  which 
Christ  taught  with  so  much  diligence :  for  the  cre- 
dibility of  which  he  wrought  so  many  miracles ;  for 


46  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  testimony  of  which  the  apostles  endured  per- 
secutions ;  that  which  was  a  folly  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  a  scandal  to  the  Jews,  this  is  that  which  is  tlie 
object  of  a  Christian's  faith:  all  other  things  are 
implicitly  in  the  belief  of  the  articles  of  God's  ve- 
racity, and  are  not  necessary  in  respect  of  the  con- 
stitution of  faith  to  be  drawn  out,  but  may  there 
lie  in  the  bowels  of  the  great  articles,  without  dan- 
ger to  any  thing  or  any  person,  unless  some  other 
accident  or  circumstance  makes  them  necessary. 
Now  the  great  object  which  I  speak  of,  is  Jesus 
Christ  crucified.  '  I  have  determind  to  know  no- 
thing among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cru- 
cified;'so  said  St.  Paul  to  the  church  of  Corinth. 
This  is  the  article  upon  the  confession  of  which 
Christ  built  his  church,  viz.  only  upon  St.  Peter's 
creed,  which  was  no  more  but  this  simple  enun- 
ciation, *  We  believe  and  are  sure  that  thou  art 
Christ,  the  son  of  the  living  God  :''■■  and  to  tliis 
salvation  particularly  is  promised,  as  in  the  case  of 
Martha's  creed,  /o/m,  xi.  27.  To  this  the  Scripture 
gives  the  greatest  testimony,  and  to  all  them  tliat 
confess  it ;  '  For  every  spirit  that  confesseth  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,  is  of  God  ;'  and 
'  Whosoever  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  God,  God  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in  God  :'t  the 
believing  this  article  is  the  end  of  writing  the  four 
Gospels :  '  These  things  are  written,  that  ye  might 
believe,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  the  son  of  God  :'+ 
and  then  that  this  is  sufficient  follows :  '  and  that  be- 
lieving,'' viz.  this  article  (for  this  was  only  instanced 
in) '  ye  might  have  life  through  his  name.''  This  is  that 
great  article  which,  as  to  the  nature  of  the  things 
to  be  believed,  is  sufficient  disposition  to  prepare  a 

*  Matt.  xvi.  11).      t  1  John,  iv.  2,  15.      X  John,  xx.  SI 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  47 

catechumen  to  baptism,  as  appears  in  the  case  of 
the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  whose  creed  was  only  this, 
'  i  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  son  of  God,'  and 
upon  this  confession  (saith  tlie  story)  they  both 
went  into  the  water,  and  the  Ethiop  was  washed, 
and  became  as  white  as  snow. 

In  these  particular  instances,  there  is  no  variety 
of  articles,  save  only  that  in  the  annexes  of  the  se- 
veral expressions,  such  things  are  expressed,  as 
besides  that  Christ  is  come,  they  tell  from  whence, 
and  to  what  purpose:  and  whatsoever  is  expressed, 
or  is  to  these  purposes  implied,  is  made  articulate 
and  explicate,  in  the  short  and  admirable  myste- 
rious creed  of  »St.  Paul,  Rom.  x.  8.  'This  is  the 
word  of  faith  which  we  preach,  that  if  thou  shalt 
confess  with  tliy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt 
believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved.'  This  is  the 
great  and  entire  complexion  of  a  Christian's  faith  ; 
and  since  salvation  is  promised  to  the  belief  of  this 
creed,  either  a  snare  is  laid  for  us,  with  a  purpose 
to  deceive  us,  or  else  nothing  is  of  prime  and  oi-i- 
ginal  necessity  to  be  believed,  but  this,  Jesus  Christ 
our  Redeemer  ;  and  all  that  which  is  the  necessary 
parts,  means,  or  main  actions  of  working  this  re- 
demption for  us,  and  the  honor  for  him,  is  in  the 
bowels  and  fold  of  the  great  article,  and  claims  an 
explicit  belief  by  the  same  reason  that  binds  us  to 
the  belief  of  its  first  complexion,  without  which 
neither  the  thing  could  be  acted,  nor  the  proposi- 
tion understood. 

For  the  act  of  believing  propositions  is  not  for 
itself,  but  in  order  to  certain  ends ;  as  sermons  are 
to  good  life  and  obedience ;  for  (excepting  that  it 
acknowledges  God's  veracity,  and  so  is  a  direct  act 
of  religion)  believing  a  revealed  proposition  hath 


48  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

no  excellency  in  itself,  but  in  order  to  that  end  for 
which  we  are  instructed  in  such  revelations.  Now 
God's  great  purpose  being  to  bring  us  to  him  by 
Jesus  Christ,  Christ  is  our  medium  to  God,  obedi- 
ence is  the  medium  to  Christ,  and  faith  the  medium 
to  obedience,  and  therefore  is  to  have  its  estimate 
in  proportion  to  its  proper  end,  and  those  things 
are  necessary  which  necessarily  promote  the  end, 
without  which  obedience  cannot  be  encouraged  or 
prudently  enjoined :  so  that  those  articles  are  ne- 
cessary, that  is,  those  are  fundamental  points,  upon 
which  we  build  our  obedience ;  and  as  the  influence 
of  the  article  is  to  the  persuasion  or  engagement  of 
obedience,  so  they  have  tlieir  degrees  of  necessity. 
Now  all  that  Christ,  when  he  preached,  tauglit  us 
to  believe,  and  all  that  the  apostles  in  their  sermons 
propound,  all  aim  at  this,  that  v/e  should  acknov/- 
ledge  Christ  for  our  Lawgiver  and  our  Savior;  so 
tliat  nothing  can  be  necessary  by  a  prime  necessity 
to  be  believed  explicitly,  but  such  things  whicli 
are  therefore  parts  of  the  great  article,  because  they 
either  encourage  our  services  or  oblige  them,  such 
as  declare  Christ's  greatness  in  himself,  or  his  good- 
ness to  us.  So  that  although  we  must  neither  deny 
nor  doubt  of  any  thing,  which  we  know  our  great 
Master  hath  taught  us;  yet  salvation  is  in  special, 
and  by  name,  annexed  to  the  belief  of  those  articles 
only,  which  have  in  them  the  endearments  of  our 
services,  or  the  support  of  our  confidence,  or  the 
satisfaction  of  our  hopes,  such  as  are — Jesus  Christ 
the  son  of  the  living  God,  the  crucifixion  and  re 
surrection  of  Jesus,  forgiveness  of  sins  by  his  blood 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  life  eternal ;  because 
these  propositions  qualify  Christ  for  our  Savior 
and  our  Lawgiver,  the  one  to  engage  our  services, 
i\\e  other  to  endear  them ;  for  so  much  is  necessary 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.       49 

as  will  make  us  to  be  his  servants,  and  his  disciples  ; 
and  what  can  be  required  more  ?  This,  only;  sal- 
vation is  promised  to  the  explicit  belief  of  those 
articles,  and  therefore  those  only  are  necessary,  and 
those  are  sufficient ;  but  thus,  to  us  in  the  formality 
of  Christians,  which  is  a  formality  superadded  to 
a  former  capacity,  we,  before  we  are  Christians,  are 
reasonable  creatures,  and  capable  of  a  blessed  eter- 
nity ;  and  there  is  a  creed  which  is  the  Gentiles' 
creed,  which  is  so  supposed  in  the  Christian  creed, 
as  it  is  supposed  in  a  Christian  to  be  a  man,  and 
that  is, "  he  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he 
is,  and  that  he  is  a  re  warder  of  them  that  diligent- 
ly  seek  him." 

If  any  man  will  urge  farther,  that  whatsoever  is 
deducible  from  these  articles  by  necessary  conse- 
quence, is  necessary  to  be  believed  explicitly,  I 
answer :  It  is  true,  if  he  sees  the  deduction  and 
coherence  of  the  parts ;  but  it  is  not  certain  that 
every  man  shall  be  able  to  deduce  whatsoever  is 
either  immediately,  or  certainly  deducible  from 
these  premises ;  and  then,  since  salvation  is  pro- 
mised to  the  explicit  belief  of  these,  I  see  not  liow 
any  man  can  justify  the  making  the  way  to  heaven 
narrower  than  Jesus  Christ  hath  made  it,  it  being 
already  so  narrow,  that  there  are  few  that  find  it. 

In  the  pursuance  of  this  great  truth  the  apostles, 
or  tlie  holy  men  their  contemporaries  and  dis- 
ciples, composed  a  creed  to  be  a  rule  of  faith  to 
all  Christians,  as  appears  in  Irenaeus,  TertuUian,* 
St.  Cyprian,!  St.  Austin,:}:  Ruffinus,§  and  divers 
others  ;I|  which  creed,  unless  it  had  contained  all 

*  Apol.  Contr.  Gent.  c.  47.     De  Veland.  Virg.  c.  1. 
t  In  Exposit.  Symbol.  |  Serm.  v.  de  Tempore,  c.  2. 

§  In  symbol  apud  Cyprian. 

II  All  the  orthodox  fathers  maintain  that  the  creed  is  of' 
5 


50  THE    SACRED   CLASSICS. 

the  entire  object  of  faith,  and  the  foundation  of 
religion,  it  cannot  be  imagined  to  what  purpose  it 
should  serve ;  and  that  it  was  so  esteemed  by  the 
whole  church  of  God  in  all  ages,  appears  in  this,  that 
since  faith  is  a  necessary  predisposition  to  baptism 
in  all  persons  capable  of  the  use  of  reason,  all  cate- 
chumens in  the  Latin  churcii,  coming  to  baptism, 
were  interrogated  concerning  their  faith,  and  gave 
satisfaction  in  the  recitation  of  this  creed.  And 
in  the  east  they  professed  exactly  the  same  faith, 
something  differing  in  words,  but  of  the  same  mat- 
ter, reason,  design,  and  consequence;  and  so  they 
did  at  Jerusalem,  so  at  Aquileia.  This  was  tliat 
"correct  and  blameless  faith,  proclaimed  by  the  holy 
catholic  and  apostolic  churcli,  without  any  mixture 
of  novelty  or  innovation."'-  These  articles  were  'the 
instructions  delivered  by  the  holy  apostles  and 
their  fellow-laborers,  to  the  holy  churciies  of  God.'t 
Now,  since  the  apostles  and  apostolical  men  and 
churches  in  these  their  symbols,-  did  recite  parti- 
cular articles  to  a  considerable  number,  and  were 
so  minute  in  their  recitation,  as  to  descend  to  cir- 
cumstances, it  is  more  than  probable  that  they 
omitted  nothing  of  necessity;  and  that  these  arti- 
cles are  not  general  principles,  in  the  bosom  of 
which  many  more  articles  equally  necessary  to 
be  believed  explicitly  and  more  particular,  are  in- 
folded ;  but  that  it  is  as  minute  an  explication  of 
those  fundamental  principles  of  belief  I  before 
reckoned,  as  is  necessary  to  salvation. 

apostolic  origin. — Sext.  Senensis.  lib.  ii.  Bibl.  vide  Genebr, 
lib.iii.  de  Trin. 

jtago?>jK»  KAi  a.Troa-Toyix.y)  iUKKno-iA  kat   ohS'iva.  t^ottov  }cciivt(r/uoy 

t  Td  T^y  ityiav  d.7J-os-To}.m  xsu  tZv  fxtr  i}Liivm  S tuTfi-^-avnoiV  h 
<TJui;  uyisLSC  &iov  iKUXvcricUc  S'i<S'ci'yuu..TU.—lAh.  V.  Cod.  de  St 
Trin.  et.  Fid.  Cath.  cum.  ri?cla. 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  51 

And  therefore  TertuUian  calls  the  creed,  "  the 
rule  of  faith,  by  whose  guidance,  whatever  appears 
ambiguous  or  obscure  in  Scripture  may  be  inves- 
tigated and  explained."*  "  The  seal  of  the  heart, 
and  the  oath  of  our  warfare,"!  St.  Ambrose  calls 
it:  "the  comprehension  and  perfection  of  our 
faith,"±  as  it  is  called  by  St.  Austin,  Serm.  115  : 
"  the  confession,  declaration,  and  rule  of  faith,"§ 
generally,  by  the  ancients.  The  profession  of 
this  creed  was  the  exposition  of  that  saying  of  St. 
Peter,  '  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards 
God  :'  for  of  the  recitation  and  profession  of  this 
creed,  in  baptism,  it  is  that  TertuUian  says,  "  the 
soul  is  not  consecrated  by  the  water,  but  hy  the 
truth  professed ."II  And  of  this  was  the  prayer 
of  Hilary,  "  Regard  this  expression  of  my  con- 
science, that  I  may  always  hold  fast  the  profession 
which  I  made  by  baptism,  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  token  of 
my  regeneration. "51  And  according  to  the  rule 
and  reason  of  this  discourse,  (that  it  may  appear 
that  the  creed  hath  in  it  all  articles  ;m??io  etper  se, 
primely  and  universally  necessary,)  the  creed  is 
just  such  an  explication  of  that  faith  which 
the  apostles  preached,  viz.  the  creed  which  St. 
Paul  recites,  as  contains  in  it  all  those  things 

*  "  Regulam  fidei,  qua  salva  et  forma  ejus  manente  in 
•suo  ordine,  posait  in  Scriptura  tractari  et  inquiri  si  quid 
videtur  vel  ambiguitate  pendere  vel  obscuritateobumbrari." 

t  "Cordis  signaculum  et  nostra?  militias  sacramentuin." 
— Lib.  iii.  De  Velandis  Virgin. 

t  "  Comprehensio  fidei  nostras  atque  perfectio." 

■^  "  Confessio,  expositio,  regula  fidei." 

IJ  "  Anima  non  lotione,  sed  responsione  sancitur." — De 
Resur.  Carnis. 

T  "  Conscrva  banc  conscientiffi  meje  vocem,  ut  quod  ia 
regenerationis  meae  symbolo  baptizatus  in  Patre,  Filio,  Spir, 
S.  profassus  sum  semper  obtineam." — Lib.  xii.  de  Trinit. 


52  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

which  entitle  Christ  to  us  in  the  capacities  of  our 
Lawgiver  and  our  Savior,  such  as  enable  him  to 
the  great  work  of  redemption,  according  to  tlie 
predictions  concerning  him,  and  such  as  engage 
and  encourage  our  services.  For,  taking  out  the 
article  of  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  (which  was 
not  in  the  old  creed,  as  appears  in  some  of  the 
copies  I  before  referred  to,  in  Tertullian,  Ruffinus, 
and  IrenaBus ;  and  indeed,  vv^as  omitted  in  all  the 
confessions  of  the  eastern  churches,  in  the  church  of 
Rome,  and  in  the  Nicene  creed,  which  by  adoption 
came  to  be  the  creed  of  the  catholic  church,)  all 
other  articles  are  such  as  directly  constitute  the 
parts  and  work  of  our  redemption,  such  as  clearly 
derive  the  honor  to  Christ,  and  enable  him  with 
the  capacities  of  our  Savior  and  Lord.  The  rest 
engage  our  services  by  proposition  of  such  articles, 
which  are  rather  promises  than  propositions  ;  and 
the  whole  creed,  take  it  in  any  of  the  old  forms, 
is  but  an  analysis  of  that  which  St.  Paul  calls  the 
word  of  salvation,  whereby  we  shall  be  saved ; 
viz.  that  we  confess  Jesus  to  be  Lord,  and  that 
God  raised  him  from  the  dead ;  by  the  first  v/hereof 
he  became  our  Lawgiver  and  our  Guardian ;  by 
the  second  he  was  our  Savior ;  the  other  things 
are  but  parts  and  main  actions  of  those  two. 
Now,  what  reason  there  is  in  the  word  that  can 
enwrap  any  thing  else  within  the  foundation ;  that 
is,  in  the  whole  body  of  articles  simply  and  inse- 
parably necessary,  or  in  the  prime  original  neces- 
sity of  faith,  I  cannot  possibly  imagine.  These  do 
the  work,  and  therefore  nothing  can,  upon  the  true 
grounds  of  reason,  enlarge  the  necessity  to  the 
inclosure  of  other  articles. 

Now,  if  more  were  necessary  than  the  articles 
of  the   creed,   I   demand  why  was  it  made  the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  53 

characteristic  note  of  a  Christian  from  a  heretic, 
or  a  Jew,  or  an  infidel  ?  Or  to  what  purpose  was 
it  composed  ?*  Or  if  this  was  intended  as  suffi- 
cient, did  the  apostles,  or  those  churches  which 
they  founded,  know  any  thing  else  to  be  neces- 
sary ?  If  they  did  not,  then  either  notiiing  more 
is  necessary,  (I  speak  of  matters  of  mere  belief,) 
or  they  did  not  know  all  the  will  of  the  Lord,  and 
so  were  unfit  dispensers  of  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom ;  or  if  they  did  know  more  was  neces- 
sary, and  yet  would  not  insert  it,  they  did  an  act 
of  public  notice,  and  consigned  it  to  all  ages  of  the 
church,  to  no  purpose,  unless  to  beguile  credulous 
people  by  making  them  believe  their  faith  was 
sufficient,  having  tried  it  by  that  touchstone  apos- 
tolical, when  there  was  no  such  matter. 

But  if  this  was  sufficient  to  bring  men  to  heaven 
then,  whj  not  now  ?  If  the  apostles  admitted  all 
to  tlieir  communion  that  believed  this  creed,  v/hy 
shall  we  exclude  any  that  preserve  the  same 
entire  ?  Why  is  not  our  faith  of  these  articles  of 
as  much  effica.cy  for  bringing  us  to  heaven,  as  it 
was  in  the  churches  apostolical  ? — who  had  guides 
more  infallible,  that  might  without  error  have 
taught  them  superstructures  enough,  if  they  had 
been  neccessary.  And  so  tliey  did :  but  that  they 
did  not  insert  them  into  the  creed,  when  they 
might  have  done  it  with  as  much  certainty  as  these 
articles,  makes  it  clear  to  my  understanding,  that 
other  tjiings  were  not  necessaiy,  but  these  were  ; 
tliat  whatever  profit  and  advantages  might  come 
from  other  articles,  yet  these  were  sufficient ;  and 
however   certain   persons   might   accidentally  be 

*  Vide  Isidor  de  Eccles.  OfTic,  lib.  i.  cap.  20.  Snidam, 
Tarncbum,  lib.  ii.  c.  80.  advers.   Vev.ant.  For.   in   Exeg. 


54  THE    SACRED   CLASSICS. 

obliged  to  believe  much  more,  yet  this  was  the  one 
and  only  foundation  of  fiiith  upon  which  all  persons 
were  to  build  their  liopes  of  heaven ;  this  was 
therefore  necessary  to  be  taught  to  all,  because  of 
necessity  to  be  believed  by  all.  So  that  although 
other  persons  might  commit  a  delinquency  in  a 
moral  principle,  if  they  did  not  know,  or  did  not 
l)elieve,  much  more  because  they  were  obliged  to 
further  disquisitions  in  order  to  other  ends,  yet 
none  of  these  who  held  the  creed  entire  could 
perish  for  want  of  necessary  faith,  though  possibly 
he  might  for  supine  negligence  or  affected  igno- 
rance, or  some  other  fault  which  had  influence, 
upon  his  opinions  and  his  understanding,  he  hav- 
ing a  new  supervening  obligation  from  accidental 
circumstances,  to  know  and  believe  more. 

Neither  are  we  obliged  to  make  these  articles 
more  particular  and  minute  than  tlie  creed.  For 
since  the  apostles,  and  indeed  our  blessed  Lord 
himself,  promised  heaven  to  them  who  believed 
him  to  be  the  Christ  that  was  to  come  into  the 
world,  and  that  he  who  believes  in  him  should  be 
partaker  of  the  resurrection  and  life  eternal,  he 
vv^ill  be  as  good  as  his  word ;  yet  because  this  arti 
cle  was  very  general,  and  a  complexion  rather 
than  a  single  proposition,  the  apostles  and  others 
our  fathers  in  Christ  did  make  it  more  explicit ; 
and  though  they  have  said  no  more  than  what  lay 
entire  and  ready  formed  in  the  bosom  of  the  great 
article,  yet  they  made  their  extracts  to  great  pur- 
pose and  absolute  sufficiency,  and  therefore  there 
needs  no  more  deductions  or  remoter  consequen- 
ces from  the  first  great  article,  than  the  creed  of 
the  apostles.  For  although  whatsoever  is  certainly 
deduced  from  any  of  these  articles  made  already 
so  explicit,  is  as  certainly  true,  and  as  amcii  to  be 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  55 

bolieveJ  as  the  article  itself,  because  nothing  but 
what  is  true  can  flow  from  truth,*  yet  because  it 
is  not  certain  that  our  deductions  from  them  are 
certain  and  what  one  calls  evident,  is  so  obscure 
to  another,  that  he  believes  it  false  ;  it  is  the  best 
and  only  safe  course  to  rest  in  that  explication 
the  apostles  have  made  ;  because,  if  any  of  these 
apostolical  deductions  were  not  demonstrable 
evidently  to  follow  from  that  great  article  to 
which  salvation  is  promised,  yet  the  authority  of 
them  who  compiled  the  symbol,  the  plain  descrip- 
tion of  the  articles  from  the  words  of  Scripture, 
the  evidence  of  reason  demonstrating  these  to  be 
the  whole  foundation,  are  sufficient  upon  great 
grounds  of  reason  to  ascertain  us  ;  but  if  we  go 
farther,  besides  the  easiness  of  being  deceived,  w? 
relying  upon  our  own  disco"vses,  (which  though 
they  may  be  true,  and  then  bind  us  to  follow  them, 
but  yet  no  more  than  when  they  only  seem  truest,) 
yet  they  cannot  make  the  thing  certain  to  another, 
much  less  necessary  in  itself.  And  since  God 
would  not  bind  us  upon  pain  of  sin  and  punish- 
ment, to  make  deductions  ourselves,  much  less 
would  he  bind  us  to  follow  another  man's  logic 
as  an  article  of  our  faith ;  I  say  much  less 
another  man's,  for  our  own  integrity  (for  we  will 
certainly  be  true  to  ourselves,  and  do  our  own 
business  heartily)  is  as  lit  and  proper  to  be  em.- 
ployed  as  another  man's  ability.  He  cannot  secure 
me  that  his  ability  is  absolute  and  the  greatest, 
but  I  can  be  more  certain  tliat  my  own  purposes 
and  fidelity  to  myself  is  such.  And  since  it  is 
necessary  to  rest  somewhere,  lest  we  sliould  run 
to  an  infinity,  it  is  best  to  rest  there  Avhere  tiie 

*  "  Ex  veris  possunt  nil  nisi  vera  sequi." 


a 


56  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

apostles  and  the  churches  apostolical  rested;  when 
not  only  they  who  are  able  to  judge,  but  others 
who  are  not,  equally  ascertained  of  the  certainty 
and  of  the  sufficiency  of  that  explanation. 

This  I  say,  not  that  I  believe  it  unlawful  or 
unsafe  for  the  church  or  any  of  the  ecclesiastical 
rulers,  or  any  wise  man  to  extend  his  own  creed 
to  anything  which  may  certainly  follow  from  any 
one  of  the  articles ;  but  I  say,  that  no  such  deduc- 
tion is  lit  to  be  pressed  on  others  as  an  article  of 
fjiith ;  and  that  every  deduction  which  is  so  made, 
unless  it  be  such  a  thing  as  is  at  first  evident  to 
all,  is  but  sufficient  to  make  a  human  faith,  nor 
can  it  amount  to  a  divine,  much  less  can  be  obli- 
gatory to  bind  a  person  of  a  differing  persuasion 
to  subscribe  under  pain  of  losing  his  faith,  or  being 
a  heretic.  For  it  is  a  demonstration,  that  nothing 
can  be  necessary  to  be  believed  under  pain  ot 
damnation,  but  such  propositions  of  which  it  is 
certain  that  God  hath  spoken  and  taught  tliem  to 
us,  and  of  which  it  is  certain  that  this  is  their 
sense  and  purpose:  for  if  the  sense  be  uncertain, 
we  can  no  more  be  obliged  to  believe  it  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  than  we  are  to  believe  it  at  all,  if  it 
were  not  certain  that  God  delivered  it.  But  if  it 
be  only  certain  that  God  spake  it,  and  not  certain 
to  what  sense,  our  faith  of  it  is  to  be  as  indeter- 
minate as  its  sense;  and  it  can  be  no  other  in  the 
nature  of  the  thing,  nor  is  it  consonant  to  God's 
justice  to  believe  of  him  that  he  can  or  will  re- 
quire more.  And  this  is  of  the  nature  of  those 
propositions,  wliich  Aristotle  calls  bic-ac,  to  which 
without  any  further  probation,  all  wise  men  v/ill 
give  assent  at  its  first  publication.  And  therefore 
deductions  inevident,  .from  the  evident  and  plain 
letter  of  faith,  are  as  great  recessions  from  the 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  57 

obligation,  as  they  are  from  the  simplicity  and 
certainty  of  the  article.  And  this  I  also  affirm, 
although  the  church  of  any  one  denomination,  or 
represented  in  a  council,  shall  make  the  deduction 
or  declaration.  For  unless  Christ  had  promised 
his  spirit  to  protect  every  particular  church  from 
all  errors  less  material ;  unless  he  had  promised 
an  absolute,  universal  infallibility  even  in  the  most 
trifling  matters  ;  unless  superstructures  be  of  the 
same  necessity  with  the  foundation,  and  that 
God's  Spirit  doth  not  only  preserve  his  church  in 
the  being  of  a  church,  but  in  a  certainty  of  not 
saying  any  thing  that  is  less  certain;  (and  that 
whether  they  will  or  no  too ;)  we  may  be  bound  to 
peace  and  obedience,  to  silence  and  to  charity,  but 
have  not  a  new  article  of  faith  made :  and  a  new 
proposition,  though  consequent  (as  it  is  said)  from 
an  article  of  faith,  becomes  not  therefore  a  part  of 
the  faith,  nor  of  absolute  necessity.  "  What  did 
the  church  ever  aim  at  doing  by  the  decrees  of  her 
councils,  but  to  make  what  was  believed  before, 
believed  afterwards  more  firmly?"*  said  Vicen- 
tius  Lirinensis:  whatsoever  was  of  necessary  be- 
lief before  is  so  still,  and  hath  a  new  degree  added, 
by  reason  of  a  new  light  or  a  clear  explication ; 
but  no  propositions  can  be  adopted  into  the  foun- 
dation. The  church  hath  power  to  intend  our 
faith,  but  not  to  extend  it ;  to  make  our  belief 
more  evident,  but  not  more  large  and  comprehen- 
sive. For  Christ  and  his  apostles  concealed  no- 
thing that  was  necessary  to  the  integrity  of  Chris- 
tian faith,  or  salvation  of  our  souls ;  Christ  declared 
all  the  will  of  his  Father,  and  the  apostles  were 

*  "  Quid  unquam  aliud ecclesia  conciliorum  decretis  enisa 
est,  niai  ut  quod  antea  siinpliciter  credebatur,  hoc  idem 
postea  diligentius  crederetur  ?" — Contra  Haeres.  cap.  32. 


58  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

Stewards  and  dispensers  of  the  same  mysteries, 
and  were  faithful  in  all  the  house,  and  therefore 
concealed  nothing,  but  taught  the  whole  doctrine 
of  Christ:  so  they  said  themselves.  And,  indeed, 
if  they  did  not  teacli  all  the  doctrine  of  faith,  an 
angel  or  a  man  might  have  taught  us  other  things 
than  what  they  taught,  without  deserving  an 
anathema,  but  not  without  deserving  a  blessing 
for  making  up  that  faitli  entire,  which  the  apostles 
left  imperfect.  Now,  if  they  taught  all  the  whole 
body  of  faith,  either  the  church  in  the  following 
ages  lost  part  of  the  faith,  (and  then  where  was 
their  infallibility,  and  the  effect  of  those  glorious 
promises,  to  which  she  pretends,  and  hath  certain 
title  ? — for  she  may  as  well  introduce  a  falsehood 
as  lose  a  truth,  it  being  as  much  promised  to  her, 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  lead  her  into  all  truth, 
as  that  she  shall  be  preserved  from  all  errors,  as 
appears,  John,  xvi.  13,)  or  if  she  retained  all  the 
faith  which  Christ  and  his  apostles  consigned  and 
taught,  then  no  age  can,  by  declaring  any  point, 
make  that  to  be  an  article  of  faith,  which  was  not 
so  in  all  ages  of  Christianity  before  such  declara- 
tion. And,  indeed,  if  the  church,*  by  declaring 
an  article,  can  make  that  to  be  necessary  which 
before  was  not  necessary,  I  do  not  see  how  it  can 
stand  with  the  charity  of  the  church  so  to  do,  (es- 
pecially after  so  long  experience  she  hath  had, 
that  all  men  will  not  believe  every  such  decision 
or  explication,)  for  by  so  doing,  she  makes  the 
narrow  way  to  heaven  narrower,  and  chalks  out 
one  path  more  to  the  devil  than  he  had  before,  and 
yet  the  way  was  broad  enough  when  it  was  at  the 

*  Vide  Jacob  Almain.  in  3.  Sent.  d.  25.  Q.  Unic.  Dub.  3. 
"  Patet  ergo,  quod  nulla  Veritas  est  eatholica  ex  approbatione 
ecclesiee  vel  Papse."— Gabr.  Biel.inS.  Sent.  Dist.  23.  q. 
Unic.  art.  3.  Dub.  3.  ad  finera. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  59 

narrowest.  For  before,  differing  persons  might  be 
saved  in  diversity  of  persuasions ;  and  now,  after 
this  declaration,  if  they  cannot,  there  is  no  other 
alteration  made,  but  that  some  shall  be  damned, 
who  before,  even  in  the  same  dispositions  and 
belief,  should  have  been  beatified  persons.  For, 
therefore,  it  is  well  for  the  fathers  of  the  primitive 
church,  that  their  errors  were  not  discovered ;  for 
if  they  had  been  contested,  (for  that  would  have 
been  called  discovery  enough.)  either  they  must 
have  relinquished  their  errors,  or  been  expelled 
from  the  church.*  But  it  is  better  as  it  was ;  they 
went  to  heaven  by  that  good  fortune,  whereas, 
otherwise  they  might  have  gone  to  the  devil.  And 
yet  there  were  some  errors,  particularly  that  of 
St.  Cyprian,  that  was  discovered,  and  he  went  to 
heaven,  it  is  thought ;  possibly  they  might  so  too 
for  all  this  pretence.  But  suppose  it  true,  yet 
whether  that  declaration  of  an  article  of  which 
with  safety  we  either  might  have  doubted  or  been 
ignorant,  do  more  good  than  the  damning  of  those 
many  souls  occasionally,  but  yet  certainly  and 
foreknowingly,  does  hurt,  I  leave  it  to  all  wise 
and  good  men  to  determine.  And  yet,  besides 
this,  it  cannot  enter  into  my  thoughts,  that  it  can 
possibly  consist  with  God's  goodness,  to  put  it 
into  the  power  of  man  so  palpably  and  openly  to 
alter  the  paths  and  inlets  to  heaven,  and  to  strait- 
en his  mercies,  unless  he  had  furnished  these  men 
with  an  infallible  judgment,  and  an  infallible  pru- 
dence, and  a  never-failing  charity;  that  they 
should  never  do  it  but  with  great  necessity,  and 
with  great  truth,  and  without  ends  and  human 
designs,  of  which  I  think  no  arguments  can  make 

"*  "  Vel  errores  emendasaent,  vel  ab  ecclesia  ejecti  fuisspnt. 
Bellir.  de  Laicis,  lib.  iii.  c.  20.  §  Ad  primam  Conlirmationem. 


60  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

US  certain  wliat  the  primitive  church  hath  done  in 
this  case :  I  shall  afterwards  consider  and  give  an 
account  of  it,  but  for  the  present,  there  is  no  in- 
security in  ending  there  where  the  apostles  ended, 
in  building  where  they  built,  in  resting  where  they 
left  us,  unless  the  same  infallibility  which  they 
had,  had  still  continued,  which  I  think  I  shall 
hereafter  make  evident  it  did  not.  And  therefore 
those  extensions  of  creed  which  were  made  in  the 
first  ages  of  the  church,  although  for  the  matter 
they  were  most  true,  yet,  because  it  was  not  cer- 
tain that  they  should  be  so,  and  they  might  have 
been  otherwise,  therefore  they  could  not  be  in  the 
same  order  of  faith,  nor  in  the  same  degrees  of 
necessity  to  be  believed  with  the  articles  apostoli- 
cal ;  and  therefore  whether  they  did  well  or  no  in 
laying  the  same  weight  upon  them,  or  whether 
they  did  lay  tlie  same  weight  or  no,  we  will  after- 
wards consider. 

But  to  return.  I  consider  that  a  foundation  of 
faith  cannot  alter  ;  unless  a  new  building  be  to  be 
made  the  foundation  is  the  same  still :  and  tliis 
foundation  is  no  other  but  that  which  Christ  and 
his  apostles  laid — which  doctrine  is  like  himself, 
yesterday,  and  today,  and  the  same  for  ever :  so 
that  the  articles  of  necessary  belief  to  all,  (which 
are  the  only  foundation,)  they  cannot  be  several  in 
several  ages,  and  to  several  persons.  Nay,  the 
sentence  and  declaration  of  the  church  cannot  lay 
this  foundation,  or  make  any  thing  of  the  founda- 
tion, because  the  church  cannot  lay  her  own  foun- 
dation :  we  must  suppose  her  to  be  a  building,  and 
that  she  relies  upon  the  foundation,  which  is 
therefore  supposed  to  be  laid  before,  because  she 
is  built  upon  it ;  or  (to  make  it  more  explicate) 
because  a  cloud  may  arise  from  the  allegory  of 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  6l 

building  and  foundation,  it  is  plainly  thus  :  the 
church  being  a  company  of  men  obliged  to  the 
duties  of  faiih  and  obedience,  the  duty  and  obliga- 
tion being  of  the  faculties  of  will  and  understand- 
ing, to  adhere  to  such  an  object,  must  presuppose 
the  object  made  ready  for  them ;  for  as  the  object 
is  bafore  the  act  in  order  of  nature,  and  therefore 
not  to  be  produced  or  increased  by  the  faculty, 
(which  is  receptive,  and  cannot  be  active  upon  its 
proper  object,)  so  the  object  of  the  church's  faith 
is  in  order  of  nature  before  the  church,  or  before 
the  act  and  habit  of  faith,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
enlarged  by  the  church,  any  more  tlian  the  act  of 
t?:^.  visive  faculty  can  add  visibility  to  the  object. 
So  that  if  we  have  found  out  wiiat  foundation 
Christ  and  his  apostles  did  lay — that  is,  what 
body  and  system  of  articles,  simply  necessary, 
they  taught  and  required  of  us  to  believe — we 
need  not,  we  cannot  go  any  further  for  foundation, 
we  cannot  enlarge  that  system  or  collection. 
Now,  then,  altliougli  all  that  they  said  is  true,  and 
nothing  of  it  be  doubted  or  disbelieved,  yet  as 
all  they  said  is  neitlier  written  nor  delivered, 
(because  all  was  not  necessary,)  so  we  know  that 
of  those  things  which  are  written  some  things  are 
as  far  off  from  the  foundation  as  those  things  which 
were  omitted,  and  therefore,  although  now  acci- 
dentally they  must  be  believed  by  all  that  know 
them,  yet  it  is  not  necessary  all  should  know 
them ;  and  that  all  should  know  them  in  the  same 
sense  and  interpretation,  is  neither  probable  nor 
obligatory :  but,  therefore,  since  these  things  are 
to  be  distinguished  by  some  differences  of  neces- 
sary and  not  necessary,  whether  or  no  is  not  the 
declaration  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  affixing 
salvation  to  the  belief  of  some  gi-eat  comprehen- 
6 


62  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

sive  articles,  and  the  act  of  the  apostles,  rendering 
them  as  explicit  as  they  thought  convenient,  and 
consigning  that  creed  made  so  explicit,  as  a  tessera 
of  a  Christian,  as  a  comprehension  of  the  articles 
of  his  belief,  as  a  sufficient  disposition,  and  an 
express  of  the  faith  of  a  catechumen,  in  ©rder 
to  baptism, — ^^vhether  or  no,  I  saj,  all  this  be  not 
sufficient  probation  that  these  only  are  of  absolute 
necessity,  that  tliis  is  sufficient  for  mere  belief  in 
order  to  heaven,  and  that  therefore  whosoever 
believes  these  articles  heartily  and  explicitly,  as 
St.  John's  expression  is,  *  God  dwelleth  in  him,' 
I  leave  it  to  be  considered  and  judged  of  from  the 
premises  :  only  this,  if  the  old  doctors  had  been 
made  judges  in  these  questions,  they  would  have 
passed  their  affirmative ;  for  to  instance  in  one 
for  all,  of  this  it  was  said  by  Tertullian  :  "  Tiiis 
symbol  is  the  one  sufficient,  immovable,  unalter- 
able, and  unchangeable  rule  of  faith,  that  admits 
no  increment  or  decrement ;  but  if  the  integrity 
and  unity  of  this  be  preserved,  in  all  other  things 
men  may  take  a  liberty  of  enlarging  their  know- 
ledges and  propheSyings,  according  as  they  are 
assisted  by  the  grace  of  God."* 

*  "  Ree^ula  quidem  fidei  una  omnino  est  solo  immobilis  et 
irreformabilis,  &c.  Hac  lege  fidei  manente  caetera  jam  disci- 
plinag  et  conversationis  admittunt  novitatem  correctionis, 
operante  scil.  et  proficiente  usque  in  finem  gratia  Dei." — 
Lib.  de  Veland.  Virg. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING. 


SECTION  IL 

Of  Heresy  and  the  nature  of  if,  and  that  it  is  to 
be  accounted  according  to  the  strict  capacity  of 
Chnstian  faith,  and  not  in  opinions  speculative  ; 
nor  ever  to  pious  persons. 

And  thus  I  have  represented  a  short  drauglit  of 
the  object  of  faith,  and  its  foundation;  the  next 
consideration,  in  order  to  our  main  design,  is  to 
consider  what  was  and  what  ought  to  be  the  judg- 
ment of  the  apostles  concerning  heresy ;  for  al- 
though there  are  more  kinds  of  vices  than  there 
are  of  virtues,  yet  the  number  of  them  is  to  be  taken 
by  accounting  the  transgressions  of  their  virtues, 
and  by  the  limits  of  faith ;  we  may  also  reckon  the 
analogy  and  proportions  of  heresy,  that  as  we 
have  seen  who  was  called  faithful  by  the  apostoli- 
cal men,  we  may  also  perceive  who  were  listed 
by  them  in  the  catalogue  of  heretics,  that  we  in 
our  judgments  may  proceed  accordingly. 

And  first,  the  word  Heresy  is  used  in  Scrip- 
ture indiiferently — in  a  good  sense  for  a  sect  or 
division  of  opinion,  and  men  following  it,  or  some- 
times in  a  bad  sense,  for  a  false  opinion  signally 
condemned.  But  these  kind  of  people  were  then 
called  antichrists  and  false  prophets  more  fre- 
quently than  heretics,  and  then  there  were  many 
of  them  in  the  world.  But  it  is  observable  that 
no  heresies  are  noted  with  distinct  particularity 
in  Scripture,  but  such  as  are  great  errors  practical — 
such  whose  doctrines  taught  impiety,  or  such  who 
denied  the  coming  of  Christ  directly  or  by  conse- 


64  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

quence,  not  remote  or  wiredrawn,  but  prime  and 
immediate :  and  therefore,  in  the  code  De  S.  Trini- 
tate  et  Fide  Catholica,  heresy  is  caljed  "a  wicked 
opinion  and  an  ungodly  doctrine."* 

The  first  false  doctrine  we  find  condemned  by 
the  apostles,  was  the  opinion  of  Simon  Magus, 
who  thought  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  be  bought 
with  money.  He  thought  very  dishonor:  bly  to 
the  blessed  Spirit ;  but  yet  his  followers  are  rather 
noted  of  a  vice,  neither  resting  in  the  understand- 
ing, nor  derived  from  it,  but  wholly  practical.  It 
is  Simony,  not  heresy,  though  in  Simon  it  was  a 
false  opinion,  proceeding  from  a  low  account  of 
God,  and  promoted  by  his  own  ends  of  pride  and 
covetousness  :  the  great  heresy  that  troubled  them 
was  the  doctrine  of  the  nece.^sity  of  keeping  the 
law  of  Moses,  the  necessity  of  circumcision  ; 
against  which  doctrine  they  were  therefore  zeal- 
ous, because  it  was  a  direct  overthrow  to  the  very 
end  and  excellency  of  Christ's  coming.  And 
this  was  an  opinion  most  pertinaciously  and 
obstinately  maintained  by  the  Jews,  and  had 
made  a  sect  among  the  Galatians,  and  this  was 
indeed  wholly  in  opinion;  and  against  it  the  apos- 
tles opposed  two  articles  of  the  creed,  which 
served  at  several  times,  according  as  the  Jews 
changed  their  opinion,  and  left  some  degrees  of 
their  error  :  '  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  be- 
lieve tlie  holy  catholic  church  ;'  for  they  tlierefore 
pressed  the  necessity  of  Moses's  law,  because  they 
were  unwilling  to  forego  the  glorious  appellative 
of  being  God's  own  peculiar  people;  and  that  sal- 
vation was  of  the  Jews,  and  that  tl  e  rest  of  the 
world  were  capable  of  that  grace  no  otherwise  but 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  65 

by  adoption  into  tlieir  religion,  and  becoming 
proselytes.  But  this  was  so  ill  a  doctrine,  as  that 
it  oft'erthrew  the  great  benefits  of  Christ's  coming; 
for  '  if  they  were  circumcised,  Christ  profited 
them  nothing  ;'  meaning  this,  that  Christ  will  not 
be  a  Savior  to  them  who  do  not  acknowledge  him 
for  their  Lawgiver ;  and  they  neither  confess  him 
their  Lawgiver  nor  their  Savior,  that  look  to  be 
justified  by  the  law  of  Moses,  and  observation  of 
legal  rites ;  so  that  this  doctrine  was  a  direct  ene- 
my to  the  foundation,  and  therefore  the  apostles 
were  so  zealous  against  it.  Now,  then,  that  other 
opinion,  which  the  apostles  met  at  Jerusalem  to 
resolve,  was  but  a  piece  of  that  opinion  ;  for  the 
Jews  and  proselytes  w^ere  drawn  off  from  their 
lees  and  sediment  by  degrees,  step  by  step.  At 
first,  they  would  not  endure  any  should  be  saved 
but  themselves  and  their  proselytes.  Being  wrought 
off  from  this  height  by  miracles,  and  preaching  of 
the  apostles,  they  admitted  the  Gentiles  to  a  pos- 
sibility of  salvation,  but  yet  so  as  to  hope  for  it  by 
Moses's  law.  From  which  foolery  when  they 
were  with  much  ado  dissuaded,  and  told  that  sal- 
vation was  by  faith  in  Christ,  not  by  works  of  the 
law,  yet  they  resolved  to  plough  with  an  ox  and 
an  ass  still,  and  join  Moses  with  Christ;  not  as 
shadow  and  substance,  but  in  an  equal  confedera- 
tion ;  Christ  should  save  the  Gentiles  if  he  was 
helped  by  Moses,  but  alone  Christianity  could  not 
do  it.  Against  this  the  apostles  assembled  at 
Jerusalem,  and  made  a  decision  of  the  question, 
tying  some  of  the  Gentiles  (such  only  who  were 
blended  by  the  Jews  as  fellow  countrymen)  to 
observation  of  such  rites  v*'hich  the  Jews  had  de- 
rived by  tradition  from  Noah,  intending  by  this 
to  satisfy  the  Jews,  as  far  as  might  be,  with  a 
6*^ 


66  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

reasonable  compliance  and  condescension ;  the 
other  Gentiles,  who  v^^ere  unmixed,  in  the  mean- 
while remaining  free,  as  appears  in  the  liberty  St. 
Paul  gave  the  church  of  Corinth,  of  editing  idol  sa- 
crifices, (expressly  against  the  decree  at  Jerusa- 
lem,) so  it  were  without  scandal.  And  yet  for 
all  this  care  and  curious  discretion,  a  little  of  the 
leaven  still  remained  :  all  this  they  tliought  did  so 
concern  the  Gentiks,  that  it  was  totally  imperti- 
nent to  the  Jews  ;  still  they  had  a  distinction  to 
satisfy  the  letter  of  the  apostle's  decree,  and  yet 
to  persist  in  their  old  opinion  ;  and  this  so  con- 
tinued, that  fifteen  Christian  bishops,  in  succes- 
sion were  circumcised,  even  until  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  under  Adrian,  as  Eusebius  re- 
ports.* 

First,  by  the  way,  let  me  observe,  that  never 
any  matter  of  question  in  the  Christian  church 
was  determined  with  greater  solemnity,  or  more 
full  authority  of  the  church,  than  'his  question 
concerning  circumcision:  no  less  than  the  whole 
college  of  the  apostles  and  elders  at  Jerusalem, 
and  that  with  a  decree  of  the  hig!iest  sanction ;  '  It 
seemed  good  to  tiie  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us.'  Se- 
condly, either  the  case  of  the  Hebrews  in  particular 
was  omitted,  and  no  determination  concerning 
them,  whether  it  were  necessary  or  lawful  for  them 
to  be  circum^cised,  or  else  it  was  involved  in  the 
decree,  and  intended  to  oblige  the  Jews.  If  it 
was  omitted,  since  the  question  was  concerning 
what  was  essential,  (for  •!  Paul  say  unto  you,  if 
ye  be  circumcised,  Christ  shall  profit  you  nothing.') 
it  is  very  remarkable  how  the  apostles,  to  gain  the 
Jews,  and  to  comply  with  their  violent  prejudice 
in  behalf  of  Moses's  law,  did  for  a  time  tolerate 

*  Euseb.  lib.  iv.  Eccles.  Hist.  c.  5 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  67 

their  dissent  even  in  what  was  otherwise  essential, 
which  I  doubt  not  but  was  intended  as  a  precedent 
for  the  church  to  imitate  for  ever  after:  but  if  it 
was  not  omitted,  either  all  the  multitude  cf  the 
Jews,  (which  St.  James,  then  tlieir  bishop,  express- 
ed bj  *' many  myriads :"•■  'Thou  seest  how 
many  myriads  of  Jews  that  believe,  and  yet  are 
zealots  for  the  law;'  and  Susebius,  speaking  of 
Justus,  says,  he  was  one  ''of  the  infinite  multitude 
of  the  circumcision,  who  believed  in  Jesus,) "t  I 
say  all  these  did  perish,  and  their  believing  in 
Christ  served  them  to  no  other  ends,  but  in  the 
infinity  of  their  torments  to  upbraid  them  with 
hypocrisy  and  heresy;  or,  if  they  were  saved,  it 
is  apparent  how  merciful  God  w.is,  and  pitiful  to 
huDian  infirmitiee.,  that  in  a  point  of  so  great  con- 
cernment did  f;i:v  their  weakness,  and  pardon 
ttieir  errors,  and  love  their  ^G;ood  mind,  since  their 
prejudice  was  little  less  than  insuperable,  and  had 
fair  probabilities,  at  least  it  was  such  as  might 
abuse  a  wise  and  good  man  (and  so  it  did  nip.nj') 
they  did  err  with  a  good  intention,  x^nd  if  T  mis- 
take not,  this  consideration  St.  Paul  J  urged  a^  a 
reason  why  God  forgave  him  who  was  a  persecu- 
tor of  the  saints,  because  he  did  it  ignorantly  in 
unbelief;  that  is,  he  was  not  convinced  in  his 
understanding,  of  the  truth  of  the  way  which  he 
persecuted ;  he  in  the  meanwhile  remaining  in  that 
incredulity,  not  out  of  malice  or  ill  ends,  but  the 
mifjtakes  of  humanity  and  a  pious  zeal,  therefore 
*  God  had  mercy  on  him.'  And  so  it  M'^as  in  this 
great  question  of  circumcision  ;  here  only  was  the 

*  Acts  xxi.  20. 

I  "  Ex  infinita  rnultitudine  eoruin  qui  ex  circumcislono  in 
Jesum  credeba,nt." — Lib.  iii.  32.  Eccles.  Hist. 
t  1  Tiaa.  i. 


68  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

difference,  the  invincibility  of  St.  Paul's  error,  and 
the  honesty  of  his  heart  caused  God  so  to  pardon 
him  as  to  bring  him  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ, 
which  God  therefore  did  because  it  was  necessary, 
as  an  intermediate  step.  No  salvation  was  con- 
sistent with  the  actual  remanency  of  that  error; 
but  in  the  question  of  circumcision,  although  they, 
by  consequence,  did  overthrow  the  end  of  Christ's 
coming,  ^^et  because  it  was  such  a  consequence, 
which  they,  being  hindered  by  a  prejudice  not  im- 
pious, did  not  perceive,  God  tolerated  them  in 
their  error,  till  time  and  a  continual  dropping  of 
the  lessons  and  dictates  apostolical  did  wear  it  out. 
And  then  the  doctrine  put  on  its  apparel,  and  be- 
came clothed  with  necessity :  they  in  the  mean 
time  so  kept  to  the  foundation,  that  is  Jesus  Christ 
crucified  and  risen  again,  that  although  this  did 
make  a  violent  concussion  of  it,  yet  they  held  fast 
with  their  heart  what  they  ignorantly  destroyed 
with  their  tongue,  (which  Saul  before  his  conver- 
sion did  not,)  that  God,  upon  other  titles  than  an 
actual  dereliction  of  their  error,  did  bring  them  to 
salvation. 

And  in  the  descent  of  so  many  years,  I  find 
not  any  one  anathema  passed  by  the  apostles  or 
their  successors,  upon  any  of  the  bishops  of  Jeru 
salem,  or  the  believers  of  the  circumcision;  and 
yet  it  was  a  point  as  clearly  determined,  and  of  as 
great  necessity,  as  any  of  those  questions  that  at 
this  day  vex  and  crucify  Christendom. 

Besides  this  question,  and  that  of  the  resurrec 
tion,  comnix^nccd  in  the  churcli  of  Corinth,  and 
promoted,  witli  some  variety  of  sense,  by  Hyme- 
nseus  and  Philetus  in  Asia;  who  said  that  the  re- 
surrection was  past  already,  I  do  not  remember 
any  other  heresy  named  in  Scripture,  but  such  a^ 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    rROPHESYING.  69 

were  errors  of  impiety  in  moral  practice ;  such  as 
Was  particularly,  forbidding  to  marry,  and  the 
heresy  of  the  Nicolaitans,  a  doctrine  that  taught 
ihe  necessity  of  lust  and  frequent  fornication. 

But  in  all  the  animadversions  against  errors, 
made  by  the  apostles  in  the  New  Testament,  no 
pious  person  was  condemned,  no  man  that  did  in- 
vincibly err.  or  with  a  good  intention  ;  but  some- 
thing: that  was  "'.liss  in  ihe  principle  of  action, 
was  that  which  Mie  apostles  did  redargue.  And 
it  is  very  considerable,  that  even  they  of  the  cir- 
cumcision, who  in  so  great  numbers  did  heartily 
believe  in  Christ,  and  yet  most  violently  retain 
circumcision,  and  without  que'^tion  went  to  heaven 
in  great  numbers,  yet  of  the  number  of  these  very 
men,  they  came  deeply  under  censure,  when  to 
their  error  they  added  impiety;  so  long  as  it 
stood  with  charity  and  without  human  ends  and 
secular  interests,  so  long  it  was  either  innocent 
or  connived  at;  but  when  they  grew  covetous, 
and  for  lilthy  lucre's  sake  taught  the  same  doc- 
trine which  others  did  in  the  simplicity  of  their 
liearts,  then  they  turned  heretics,  then  they  were 
termed  seducers;  and  Titus  was  commanded  to 
lool;  to  them,  and  to  silence  them ;  *  For  there  are 
many  that  are  intractable  and  vain  babblers,  se- 
ducers of  minds,  especially  they  of  the  circum- 
cision, who  seduce  whole  houses,  teaching  things 
that  they  ought  not,  for  filthy  lucre's  sake.'  i  hese 
indeed  were  not  to  be  endured,  but  to  be  silenced, 
b}^  the  conviction  of  sound  doctrine,  and  to  be  re- 
buked sharply,  and  avoided. 

For  heresy  is  not  an  error  of  the  understanding, 
but  an  error  of  the  will.  And  this  is  clearly  in- 
sinuated in  Scripture,  in  the  style  wiiereof  faith 
and  a  good   life  are  made  one  duty,  and  vice  is 


70  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

called  opposite  to. faith,  and  heresy  opposed  to 
holiness  and  sanctity.  So  in  St.  Paul :  '  For  (saith 
he)  the  end  of  the  commandment  is  charity  out  of 
a  pure  heart  and  a  good  conscience,  and  faith  un- 
feigned ;'*  a  quibus  quod  aberrarunt  qitidam,  from 
which  charity,  and  purity,  and  goodness,  and  sin- 
cerity, because  some  have  wandered,  they  have 
turned  aside  unto  vain  jangling.  And  immediately 
after,  he  reckons  the  oppositions  to  faith  and  sound 
doctrine,  and  instances  only  in  vices  that  stain  the 
lives  of  Christians,  *the  unjust,  the  unclean,  tlie 
uncharitable,  the  liar,  the  perjured  person;'  these 
are  the  enemies  of  the  true  doctrine.  And  there- 
fore St.  Peter,  having  given  in  charge,  to  add  to 
our  virtue  patience,  temperance,  charity,  and  tlie 
like,  gives  this  for  a  reason  :  '  for  if  these  things  be 
in  you  and  abound,  ye  shall  be  fruitful  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.''  So  that 
knowledge  and  faith  is  part  of  a  good  life.t  And 
St.  Paul  calls  faith,  or  the  form  of  sound  words, 
'  the  doctrine  that  is  according  to  godliness,'  1 
Tim.  vi,  5.  And  to  believe  in  the  truth,  and  to 
have  pleasure  in  unrighteousness,:}:  are  by  the 
same  apostle  opposed,  and  intimates,  that  piety 
and  faith  is  all  one  thing :  faith  must  be  entire  and 
holy  too,  or  it  is  not  right.  It  was  the  heresy  of 
the  Gnosticks,  that  it  was  no  matter  how  men 

*   1  Tim.  i. 

t  "  Quid  igitiir  credulitas  vel  fides  ?  Opinor  fidelitcr  homl 
nem  Christo  credere ;  id  est,  fidelein  Deo  esse  ;  hoc  est,  fide- 
liter  Dei  mandata  servare." 

"  What  then  is  belief  or  faith  ?  It  is,  in  my  opinion,  faith- 
fully to  believe  in  Christ;  that  is,  to  be  faithful  to  God:  in 
other  words,  fiiithfully  to  keep  his  commandments." — So  Sal- 
vian. 

X  Eva-i/^iic  Tcev  xpio-n-Ktvcev  ^piKruiict ;  that  is,  "  our  religion, 
or  faith  ;  the  whole  manner  of  serving  God. —  C.  de  summa 
Trinit.  et  Fide  Calhol. 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  71 

lived,  so  they  did  but  believe  aright :  which  wicked 
doctrine  Tatianus,  a  learned  Christian,  did  so  de- 
test, that  he  fell  into  a  quite  contrary ;  "  It  is  of 
no  consequence  what  a  man  believes,  but  only 
what  he  does."*  And  thence  came  the  sect  of 
the  Encratites.  Both  these  heresies  sprang  from 
the  too  nice  distinguishing  the  faith  from  the  pie- 
ty and  good  life  of  a  Christian :  they  are  both  but 
one  duty.  However  they  may  be  distinguished, 
if  v/e  speak  like  philosophers  ;  they  cannot  be  dis- 
tinguished, when  we  speak  like  Christians.  For 
to  believe  what  God  hath  commanded,  is  in  order 
to  a  good  life;  and  to  live  well  is  the  product  of 
that  believing,  and  as  proper  emanations  from  it, 
as  from  its  proper  principle,  and  as  heat  is  from 
the  fire.  And  therefore,  in  Scripture,  they  are 
used  promiscuously  in  sense,  and  in  expression, 
as  not  only  being  subjected  in  the  same  person, 
but  also  in  the  same  faculty;  faith  is  as  truly 
seated  in  the  will  as  in  the  understanding,  and  a 
good  life  as  merely  derives  from  the  understand- 
ing as  the  will.  Both  of  them  are  matters  of  choice 
and  of  election,  neither  of  them  an  effect  natural 
and  invincible  or  necessary  antecedently.t  And, 
indeed,  if  we  remember  that  St.  Paul  reckons 
heresy  amongst  the  works  of  the  flesh,  and  ranks 
it  with  all  manner  of  practical  impieties,  we  shall 
easily  perceive,  that  if  a  man  mingles  not  a  vice 
with  his  opinion,  if  he  be  innocent  in  his  life, 
though  deceived  in  his  doctrine,  his  error  is  his 
misery,  not  his  crime ;  it  makes  him  an  argument 
of  weakness  and  an  object  of  pity,  but  not  a  person 
sealed  up  to  ruin  and  reprobation. 

*  "Non  e3t  curandum  quid  quisque  credat,  id  tantura 
curandum  est  quod  quisque  faciat." 

[  "  Necessaria  ut  fiant,  non  n^cessaria  facta." 


72  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS, 

For  as  the  nature  of  faith  is,  so  is  the  nature  of 
heresy,  contraries  having  the  same  proportion  and 
commsnsuration.     Now  faith,  if  it  be  taken  for  an 
act  of  the  understanding  merely,  is  so  far  from 
being  that  excellent  grace  that  justifies  us,  that  it 
is  not  good  at  all,  in  any  kind  but  naturally,  and 
makes  the  understanding  better  in  itself,  or  pleas- 
ing to   God,  just  as  strength  doth  the  arm,  or 
beauty  the  face,  or  health  the  body ;  these  are 
natural  perfections  indeed,  and  so  knowledge  and 
a  true  belief  is  to  die  understanding.     But  this 
makes  us  not  at  all  more  acceptable  to  God  ;  for 
then  the  unlearned  were  certainly  in  a  damnable 
condition,  and  all  good  scholars  should  be  saved, 
(whereas  I  am  afraid  too  much  of  the  contrary  is 
true.)     But   unless  faith  be  made  moral  by  the 
mixtures  of  choice  and  charity,  it  is  nothing  but 
a  natural  periection,  not  a  grace  or  a  virtuf^ ;  and 
this  is  demonstrably  proved  in  this,  that  by  the 
confession  of  all  men,  all  wi"  interests  and  persua- 
sions in  matters  of  mere  belief,  invincible  ignor- 
ance is  our  excuse  if  we  be  deceived,  which  could 
not  be,  but  that  neither  to  believe  aright  is  com- 
mendable, nor  to  believe  amiss  is  reprovable  •  but 
where  both  one  and  the  other  is  voluntary  and 
chosen  antecedently  or  consequently,  by  prime 
election  or  ex  j^ost  facto,  and  so  comes  to  be  con- 
sidered in  morality,  and  is  part  of  a  good  life  or 
a  bad  life  respectively.    Just  so  it  is  in  heresy ; 
if  it  be  a  design  of  ambition  and  making  of  a  sect, 
(so  Erasmus  expounds  St.  Paul,  cupimtov  dtv^pa^ou;)* 
if  it  be  for  filthy  lucre's  sake,  as  it  was  in  some 
that  were  of  the  circumcision  ;  if  it  be  of  pride 

*  "  Alieni  sunt   a  veritate   qui  se  obarinant  multitu- 
dine."— Chryst. 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  73 

and  love  of  pre-eminence,  as  it  was  in  Biotrephcs; 
or  out  of  peevishness  and  indocibleness  of  disposi- 
tion, or  of  a  contentious  spirit;  that  is,  that  their 
feet  are  not  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel 
of  peace ;  in  all  these  cases  the  error  is  jufet  so 
damnable  as  is  its  principle,  but  therefore  damna- 
ble not  of  itself,  but  by  reason  of  its  adherency. 
And  if  any  shall  say  any  otherwise,  it  is  to  say 
that  some  men  shall  be  damned  when  they  cannot 
help  it,  perish  without  their  own  fault,  and  be 
miserable  for  ever,  because  of  their  unhappiness 
to  be  deceived  through  their  own  simplicity  and 
natural  or  accidental,  but  inculpable  infirmity. 

For  it  cannot  stand  with  the  goodness  of  God, 
who  does  so  know  our  infirmities,  that  he  pardons 
many  things  in  which  our  wills  indeed  have  the 
least  share,  (but  some  they  have,)  but  are  over- 
borne with  the  violence  of  an  impetuous  tempta- 
tion ;  I  say,  it  is  inconsistent  with  his  goodness 
to  condemn  those  who  err  where  the  error  liath 
nothing  of  the  will  in  it,  who  therefore  cannot  re- 
pent of  their  error,  because  they  believe  it  true, 
who  therefore  cannot  make  compensation,  because 
they  know  not  that  they  are  tied  to  dereliction 
of  it.  And  although  all  heretics  are  in  this  con- 
dition, that  is,  they  believe  their  errors  to  be  true ; 
yet  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  them  who 
believe  so  out  of  simplicity,  and  them  vv'ho  are 
given  over  to  believe  a  lie,  as  a  punishment  or  an 
effect  of  some  other  wickedness  or  impiety.  For 
all  have  a  concomitant  assent  to  the  truth  of 
what  they  believe ;  and  no  man  can  at  the  same 
time  believe  what  he  does  not  believe,  but  tliis 
assent  of  the  understanding  in  heretics  is  caused 
not  by  force  of  argument,but  the  argument  is  made 
forcible  by  something  that  is  amiss  in  his  will ; 


74  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

and  although  a  heretic  may  peradventure  have  a, 
stronger  argument  for  his  error  than  some  true 
believer  for  his  right  persuasion,  yet  it  is  not 
considerable  how  strong  his  argument  is ;  (because 
ina  w^eak  understanding,  a  small  motive  will  pro- 
duce a  great  persuasion,  like  gentle  physic  in  a 
weak  body;)  but  that  which  here  is  considerable, 
is,  what  it  is  that  made  his  argument  forcible.  If 
his  invincible  and  harmless  prejudice,  if  his  weak- 
ness, if  his  education,  if  his  mistaking  piety,  if 
any  thing  that  hath  no  venom,  nor  a  sting  in  it, 
there  the  heartiness  of  his  persuasion  is  no  sin, 
but  his  misery  and  his  excuse ;  but  if  any  thing 
that  is  evil  in  the  principle  of  his  conduct  did 
incline  his  understanding,  if  his  opinion  did  com- 
mence upon  pride,  or  is  nourished  by  covetous- 
ness,  or  continues  through  stupid  carelessness,  or 
increases  by  pertinacity,  Or  is  confirmed  by  obsti- 
nacy, then  the  innocency  of  the  error  is  disbanded, 
his  misery  is  changed  into  a  crime  and  begins  its 
own  punishment.  But,  by  the  way,  I  must  ob- 
serve, that  when  I  reckoned  obstinacy  amongst 
those  things  which  make  a  false  opinion  criminal, 
it  is  to  be  understood  with  some  discretion  and 
distinction.  For  there  is  an  obstinacy  of  will 
which  is  indeed  highly  guilty  of  misdemeanor; 
and  when  the  school  makes  pertinacitj'^  or  obsti- 
nacy to  be  the  formality  of  heresy,  tliey  say  not 
true  at  all,  unless  it  be  meant  the  obstinacy  of  the 
will  and  choice;  and  if  they  do,  they  speak  im- 
perfectly and  inartificially,  this  being  but  one  of 
the  causes  that  make  error  become  heresy.  The 
adequate  and  perfect  formality  of  heresy  is  what- 
soever makes  the  error  voluntary  and  vicious,  as 
is  clear  in  Scripture,  reckoning  covetousness,  and 
pride,  and  lust,  and  whatsoever  Is  vicious,  to  be 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  75 

its  causes  ;  (and  in  habits  or  moral  changes  and 
productions,  whatever  alters  the  essence  of  a 
habit,  or  gives  it  a  new  formality,  is  not  to  be 
reckoned  the  efficient  but  tJie  form;)  but  there  is 
also  an  obstinacy,  (you  may  call  it,)  but,  indeed, 
is  nothing  but  a  resolution  and  confirmation  of 
understanding,  which  is  not  in  a  man's  power 
honestly  to  alter ;  and  it  is  not  all  the  commands 
of  humanity  that  can  be  argument  sufficient  to 
make  a  man  leave  believing  tliat  for  which  he  thinks 
he  hath  reason,  and  for  wliich  he  hath  such  argu- 
ments as  heartily  convince  him.  Now,  the  persist- 
ing in  an  opinion  finally,  and  against  all  the  confi- 
dence and  imperiousness  of  human  commands, 
that  makes  not  this  criminal  obstinacy,  if  the 
erring  person  have  so  much  humility  of  will  as  to 
submit  to  whatever  God  says,  and  that  no  vice  in 
his  will  hinders  him  from  believing  it.  So  that  we 
must  carefully  distinguish  continuance  in  opinion 
from  obstinacy,  confidence  of  understanding  from 
peevishness  of  affection,  a  not  being  convinced 
from  a  resolution  never  to  be  convinced  upon  hu- 
man ends  and  vicious  principles.  "  We  are  ac- 
quainted with  some  persons  who  are  uny^'illing  to 
relinquish  what  they  have  once  believed ;  nor  can 
they  be  easily  convinced,  but  still  persist  in  re- 
taining the  notions  they  have  once  adopted,  though 
in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  charity;  in  wliich  case 
we  neither  use  compulsion  nor  authority,''  saith 
St.  Cyprian.*  And  he  himself  was  such  a  one  ; 
for  he  persisted  in  his  opinion  of  rebaptization 

*  "  Scimus  quo?dam  quod  semel  imbiberint  nolle  dejDonere, 
nee  propositum  suum  fUcile  mutare,  sed  salvo  inter  colleg-a.s 
pacis  et  concordise  vinculo  quaedam  propria  qufe  apud  se 
semel  sint  usurpata  retinere  ;  qua  in  re  nee  nos  vim  cujquaiu 
laciinus,  aut  legem  dainus. — Lib.  ii.  Ep.  1. 


76  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

until  death,  and  jet  his  obstinacy  was  not  called 
criminal,  or  his  error  turned  to  heresy.  But  to 
return. 

In  this  sense  it  is  that  a  heretic  is  cu'To^^ATctapiroc, 
self-condemned,  not  by  an  immediate  express 
sentence  of  understanding,  but  by  his  own  act  or 
fault  brought  into  condemnation.  As  it  is  in  the 
canon  law,  Notoriiis  percussor  clerici  is  ipso  jure 
excommunicate,  not  per  sententiam  latara  ah  ho- 
mine,  but  a  jure.  "  A  man  m^io  strikes  a  clergy- 
man, is  excommunicated  by  his  own  conscience, 
not  so  much  by  a  public  verdict  as  by  right."  No 
man  hath  passed  sentence  from  a  judgment-seat, 
but  law  hath  decreed  it  by  express  enactment : 
so  it  is  in  the  case  of  a  heretic.  The  understand- 
ing, which  is  judge,  condemns  him  not  by  an 
express  sentence ;  for  he  errs  with  as  much  sim- 
plicity in  the  result,  as  he  had  malice  in  the  prin- 
ciple :  but  there  is  sententia  lata  a  jure,  his  will 
which  is  his  law  that  hath  condemned  him.  And 
this  is  gathered  from  that  saying  of  St.  Paul, 
2  Tim,  iii.  IS.  '  But  evil  men  and  seducers  shall 
wax  worse  and  worse,  deceiving  and  being  de- 
ceived.' First  they  are  evil  men;  malice  and 
peevishness  is  in  their  wills  ;  then  they  turn  here- 
tics and  seduce  others,  and  while  they  grow  worse 
and  worse,  the  error  is  master  of  their  under- 
standing; they  are  deceived  themselves,  'given 
over  to  believe  a  lie,'  saith  the  apostle.  They  first 
play  the  knave,  and  then  play  the  fool ;  they  first 
sell  themselves  to  the  purchase  of  vain  glory  or  ill 
ends,  and  then  they  become  possessed  with  a  lying 
spirit,  and  believe  those  things  heartily,  which  if  y% 
they  were  honest  they  should,  with  God's  grace, 
discover  and  disclaim.  So  that  now  we  see  that  ' 
a  hearty  persuasion  in  a  false  article  does  not 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  '       71 

always  make  tlie  error  to  be  esteemed  involun- 
taiily ;  but  then  only  when  it  is  as  innocent  in 
the  principle  as  it  is  confident  in  the  present  per- 
suasion. And  such  persons  who  by  their  ill  lives 
and  vicious  actions,  or  manifest  designs  (for  by 
their  fruits  ye  sliall  know  them)  give  testimony 
of  such  criminal  indisposition,  so  as  competent 
judges  by  human  and  prudent  estimate  may  so 
judge  them,  then  they  are  to  be  declared  heretics, 
and  avoided.  And  if  this  were  not  true,  it  were 
vain  that  the  apostle  commands  us  to  avoid  a 
heretic  :  for  no  external  act  can  pass  upon  a  man 
for  a  crime  that  is  not  cognizable. 

Now  every  man  that  errs,  though  in  a  matter 
of  consequence,  so  long  as  the  foundation  is  entire, 
cannot  be  suspected  justly  guilty  of  a  crime  to 
give  his  error  a  formality  of  heresy ;  for  we  see 
many  a  good  man  miserably  deceived ;  (as  we 
shall  make  it  appear  afterwards ;)  and  he  that  is  the 
best  amongst  men,  certainly  hath  so  much  hu- 
rr.ility  to  think  he  may  be  easily  deceived ;  and 
twenty  to  one  but  he  is,  in  something  or  otlier ; 
yet,  if  his  error  be  not  voluntary,  and  part  of  an 
ill  life,  then  because  he  lives  a  good  life,  he  is  a 
good  man,  and  therefore  no  lieretic :  no  man  is  a 
heretic  against  his  will.  And  if  it  be  pretended 
that  every  man  that  is  deceived,  is  therefore  proud, 
because  he  does  not  submit  his  understanding  to 
the  authority  of  God  or  man  respectively,  and  so 
his  error  becomes  a  heresy  ;  to  this  I  answer,  that 
there  is  no  Christian  man  but  will  submit  his 
understanding  to  God,  and  believe  whatsoever  he 
hath  said  ;  but  always  provided  he  knows  that 
jGJod  hath  said  so,  else  he  must  do  his  duty  by  a 
readiness  to  obey  when  he  shall  know  it.  But 
for  obedience  or  humility  of  the  riBderstanding 
7"' 


78  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

towards  men,  that  is  a  thin^g  of  another  considera- 
tion, and  it  must  first  be  made  evident  that  his  un- 
derstanding must  be  submitted  to  men ;  and  who 
those  men  are,  must  also  be  certain,  before  it  will  be 
adjudged  a  sin  not  to  submit.  But  if  I  mistake  not, 
Christ's  saying,  'Call  no  man  master  upon  earth,' 
is  so  great  a  prejudice  against  this  pretence,  as  I 
doubt  it  will  go  near  wholly  to  make  it  invalid. 
So  tliat  as  the  worshiping  of  angels  is  a  humility 
indeed,  but  it  is  voluntary  and  a  willworship  to 
an  ill  sense,  not  to  be  excused  by  the  excellency 
of  humility,  nor  the  virtue  of  religion ;  so  is  the 
relying  upon  the  judgment  of  man  an  humility 
too,  but  such  as  comes  not  under  that  obedience 
of  faith  which  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian,  but 
intrenches  upon  that  duty  which  we  owe  to  Christ 
as  an  acknowledgment  that  he  is  our  great  ]Mas- 
ter,  and  the  Prince  of  the  catholic  church.  But 
whether  it  be  or  be  not,  if  that  be  the  question, 
whether  the  disagreeing  person  be  to  be  determined 
by  the  dictates  of  men,  I  am  sure  the  dictates  of 
men  must  not  determine  him  in  that  question,  but 
it  must  be  settled  by  some  higher  principle :  so 
that  if  of  that  question  the  disagreeing  person 
does  opine,  or  believe,  or  err  bona  Jide^  lie  is  not 
therefore  to  be  judged  a  heretic,  because  he  sub- 
mits not  his  understanding ;  because,  till  it  be 
sufficiently  made  certain  to  him  that  he  is  bound 
to  submit,  he  may  innocently  and  piously  disagree ; 
and  this  not  submitting  is  therefore  not  a  crime, 
(and  so  cannot  make  a  heresy,)  because  without 
a  crime  he  may  lawfully  doubt  whether  he  be 
bound  to  submit  or  no,  for  that  is  the  question. 
And  if  in  such  questions  which  have  influence 
upon  a  whole  system  of  theology,  a  man  may 
doubt  lawfully  if  he  doubts  heartily,  because  the 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  79 

authority  of  men  being  the  thing  in  question, 
cannot  be  the  judge  of  this  question,  and  there- 
fore being  rejected,  or  (which  is  all  one)  being 
questioned,  that  is,  not  believed,  cannot  render 
the  doubting  person  guilty  of  pride,  and  by  con- 
sequence not  of  heresy,  much  more  may  particular 
questions  be  doubted  of,  and  the  authority  of  men 
examined,  and  yet  the  doubting  person  be  humble 
enough,  and  therefore  no  heretic  for  all  this  pre- 
tence. And  it  v/ould  be  considered  that  humility 
is  a  duty  in  great  ones  as  well  as  in  idiots.*^ 
And  as  inferiors  must  not  disagree  without  reason, 
so  neither  must  superiors  prescribe  to  others  with- 
out sufficient  authority,  evidence,  and  necessity 
too;  and  if  rebellion  be  pride,  so  is  tyranny;  both 
may  be  guilty  of  pride  of  understanding,  some- 
times the  one  in  imposing,  sometimes  the  other  in 
a  causeless  disagreeing ;  but  in  the  inferiors  it  is 
then  only  the  want  of  humility,  v/hen  the  guides 
impose  or  prescribe  what  God  hath  also  taught, 
and  then  it  is  the  disobeying  God's  dictates,  not 
man's,  that  makes  the  sin.  But  then  this  consider- 
ation w'ill  also  intervene,  that  as  no  dictate  of 
God  obliges  me  to  believe  it,  unless  I  know  it  to 
be  such ;  so  neither  will  any  of  the  dictates  of  my 
superiors  engage  my  faith,  unless  I  also  know,  or 
have  no  reason  to  disbelieve,  but  that  they  are 
warranted  to  teach  them  to  me,  therefore,  because 
God  hath  taught  the  same  to  them ;  which'  if  I 
once  know,  or  have  no  reason  to  think  the  contra- 
ry, if  I  disagree,  my  sin  is  not  in  -resisting  human 
authority,  but  divine.  And,  therefore,  the  whole 
business  of  submitting  our  understanding  to  human 
authority  comes  to  nothing;  for  either  it  resolves 

*  Mean  or  illiterate  persons. 


80  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

into  tlie  direct  duty  of  submitting  to  God,  or,  if 
it  be  spoken  of  abstractedly,  it  is  no  duty  at  all. 

But  this  pretence  of  a  necessity  of  humbling 
the  understanding,  is  none  of  the  meanest  arts 
whereby  some  persons  have  invaded  and  usurped 
a  power  over  men's  faith  and  consciences ;  and 
therefore  we  shall  examine  the  pretence  after- 
wards, and  try  if  God  hath  invested  any  man,  or 
company  of  men,  with  such  a  power.  In  the  mean 
time,  he  that  submits  his  understanding  to  all  that 
he  knows  God  hath  said,  and  is  ready  to  submit  to 
all  that  he  hath  said  if  he  but  knov/  it,  denying 
his  own  aftections,  and  ends,  and  Interests,  and 
human  persuasions,  laying  them  all  down  at  the  foot 
of  his  great  master,  Jesus  Christ,  that  man  hath 
brought  his  understanding  into  subjection,  and 
every  proud  thought  unto  the  obedience  of  Christ; 
and  this  is  the  obedience  of  faith,  which  is  the 
duty  of  a  Christian. 

But  to  proceed.  Besides  these  heresies  noted 
in  Scripture,  the  age  of  tlie  apostles,  and  that 
which  followed,  was  infested  with  other  heresies; 
but  such  as  had  the  same  formality  and  malignity 
with  the  precedent,  all  of  them  either  such  as 
taught  practical  impieties,  or  denied  an  article  of 
the  creed.  Egesippus,  in  Eusebius,  reckons  seven 
only  prime  heresies,  that  sought  to  deflower  the 
purity  of  the  church:  that  of  Simon,  that  of  The- 
butes,  of  Cleobius,  of  Dositheus,  of  Gortheus,  of 
Masbotheus.  I  suppose  Cerinthus  to  have  been 
the  seventh  man,  though  he  express  him  not :  but 
of  these,  except  the  last,  we  know  no  particulars, 
but  that  Egesippus  says,  they  were  false  Christs, 
and  that  their  doctrine  was  directly  against  God 
and  his  blessed  Son.  Menander,  also,  was  the 
first  of  a  sect;  but  he  bewitched  the  people  with 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  81 

his  sorceries.  Cerinthus's  doctrine  pretended 
enthusiasm,  or  a  new  revelation,  and  ended  in 
lust  and  impious  theorems  in  matter  of  unclean- 
ness.  The  Ebionites^^'  denied  Christ  to  be  the  Son 
of  God,  and  affirmed  him  mere  man,  begot  by 
natural  generation,  (by  occasion  of  which  and  the 
importunity  of  the  Asian  bishops,  St.  John  wrote 
his  Gospel,)  and  taught  the  observation  of  Moses's 
law.  Basilides  taught  it  lawful  to  renounce  the 
faith,  and  take  false  oaths  in  time  of  persecution. 
Carpocrates  was  a  very  bedlam,  half-witch,  and 
quite  mad-man,  and  practised  lust,  which  he  called 
the  secret  operations  to  overcome  the  potentates 
of  the  world.  Some  more  there  were,  but  of  the 
same  nature  and  pest ;  not  of  a  nicity  in  dispute, 
not  a  question  of  secret  philosophy,  not  of  atoms, 
and  undiscernible  propositions,  but  open  defiances 
of  all  faith,  of  all  sobriety,  and  of  all  sanctity; 
excepting  only  the  doctrine  of  the  Millennaries, 
which  in  the  best  ages  was  esteemed  no  heresy, 
but  true  catholic  doctrine,  though  since  it  hath 
justice  done  to  it,  and  hath  suffered  a  just  con- 
demnation. 

Hitherto,  and  in  these  instances,  the  church  did 
esteem  and  judge  of  heresies,  in  proportion  to  the 
rules  and  characters  of  fliith.     For  faith  beino*  a 

o 

doctrine  of  piety  as  v/ell  as  truth,  that  which  was 
either  destructive  of  fundamental  verity,  or  of 
Christian  sanctity  was  against  faith,  and  if  it  be 
made  a  sect,  was  heresy ;  if  not,  it  ended  in  per- 
sonal impiety  and  went  no  farther.  But  those 
who,  as  St.  Paul  says,  not  only  did  such  things, 
but  had  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them,  and  there- 
fore taught  others  to  do  what  tliey  impiously  did 

*  Vide  Hilar,  lib.  i.DeTrin. 


82  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

dogmatize,  they  were  heretics  both  in  matter  and 
form,  in  doctrine  and  deportment,  towards  God, 
and  towards  man,  and  judicable  in  both  tribu- 
nals. 

But  the  Scripture  and  apostolical  sermons,  hav- 
ing expressed  most  high  indignation  against  these 
masters  of  impious  sects,  leaving  them  under  pro- 
digious characters,  and  horrid  representments,  as 
calling  them  men  of  corrupt  minds,  reprobates 
concerning  the  faith,  given  over  to  strong  delu- 
sions, to  the  belief  of  a  lie,  false  apostles,  false 
prophets,  men  already  condemned,  and  that  bj 
themselves,  anti-Christs,  enemies  of  God;  and 
heresy  itself,  a  work  of  the  flesh,  excluding  from 
the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  left  such  impressions  in 
the  minds  of  all  their  successors,  and  so  much 
zeal  against  such  sects,  that  if  any  opinion  com- 
menced in  the  church  not  heard  of  before,  it 
oftentimes  had  this  ill  luck  to  run  the  same  for- 
tune with  an  old  heresy.  For  because  the  heretics 
did  bring  in  new  opinions  in  matters  of  great 
concernment,  every  opinion  de  novo  brought  in 
was  liable  to  the  same  exception ;  and  because  the 
degree  of  malignity  in  every  error  was  oftentimes 
undiscernible,  and  most  commonly  indemonstra- 
ble, their  zeal  was  alike  against  all;  and  those 
ages  being  full  of  pietj^  were  fitted  to  be  abused 
with  an  over-active  zeal,  as  wise  persons  and 
learned  are  with  a  too  much  indifterency. 

But  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  further  the  succes- 
sion went  from  the  apostles,  the  more  forward 
men  were  in  numbering  heresies,  and  that  upoii 
slighter  and  more  uncertain  grounds.  Some  foot- 
steps of  this  we  shall  find,  if  we  consider  the  sects 
that  are  said  to  have  sprung  in  the  first  three 
hundred   years,  and   they   were   quick  in   their 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    rROPHESYIx\G.  83 

springs  and  falls ;  fourscore  and  seven  of  them  are 
reckoned.  Thej  were  indeed  reckoned  afterward, 
and  though  when  they  were  alive,  they  were  not 
condemned  with  as  much  forwardness,  as  after 
they  were  dead ;  yet  even  then,  confidence  began 
to  mingle  with  opinions  less  necessary,  and  mis- 
takes in  judgment  were  oftener  and  more  public 
than  they  should  have  been.  But  if  they  were 
forward  in  their  censures  (as  sometimes  some  of 
them  were),  it  is  no  great  wonder  they  were  de- 
ceived. For  what  principle  or  criterion  had  they 
then  to  judge  of  heresies,  or  condemn  them,  besides 
the  single  dictates  or  decretals  of  private  bishops  ? 
for  Scripture  was  indifferently  pretended  by  all ; 
and  concerning  the  meaning  of  it,  was  the  question. 
Now  there  was  no  general  council  all  that  while, 
no  opportunity  for  the  church  to  convene;  and  it 
we  search  the  communicatory  letters  of  the 
bishops  and  martyrs  in  those  days,  we  shall  find 
but  few  sentences  decretory  concerning  any 
question  of  faith,  or  new-sprung  opinion.  And  in 
those  that  did,  for  aught  appears,  the  persons  were 
misreported,  or  their  opinions  mistaken,  or  at 
most,  the  sentence  of  condemnation  was  no  more 
but  this:  such  a  bishop  who  hath  had  the  good 
fortune  by  posterity  to  be  reputed  a  catholic,  did 
condemn  sucli  a  man  of  such  an  opinion,  and  yet 
himself  erred  in  as  considerable  matters,  but  meet- 
ing with  better  neighbors  in  his  life-time,  and  a 
more  charitable  posterity,  hath  his  memory  pre- 
served in  honor.  It  appears  plain  enough  in  the 
case  of  Nicholas,  the  deacon  of  Antioch,  upon  a 
mistake  of  his  words  whereby  he  taught  to  abuse 
the.  flesh,  viz.  by  acts  of  austerity  and  self-denial, 
and  mortification  ;  some  wicked  people,  that  were 
glad  to  be  mistaken  and  abused  into  a  pleasing 


84  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

crime,  pretended  that  he  taught  them  to  abuse  the 
flesh  bj  filthj  commixtures  and  pollutions :  this 
mistake  was  transmitted  to  posterity  with  a  full 
cry,  and  acts  afterwards  found  out  to  justify  an  ill 
opinion  of  him.  For  by  St.  Jerome's  time  it  grew 
out  of  question,  but  that  he  was  the  vilest  of  men, 
and  the  worst  of  heretics  :*  accusations  that,  while 
the  good  man  lived,  were  never  thought  of,  for  his 
daughters  were  virgins,  and  his  sons  lived  in  holy 
celibacy  all  their  lives,  and-himself  lived  in  chaste 
wedlock;  and  yet  his  memory  had  rotted  in  per- 
petual infamy,  had  not  God  (in  whose  sight  the 
memory  of  the  saints  is  precious)  preserved  it  by 
the  testimony  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,t  and  from 
liim  of  Eusebius  and  Nicephorus.i  But  in  the 
catalogue* of  heretics  made  by  Philastrius,  he  stands 
marked  with  a  black  character,  as  guilty  of  many 
heresies;  by  which  one  testimony  we  may  guess 
what  trust  is  to  be  given  to  those  catalogues. 
Well,  this  good  man  had  ill  luck  to  fall  into  un- 
skillful hands  at  first;  but  Iren^us,  Justin  Martyr, 
Lactantius  (to  name  no  more),  had  better  fortune; 
for  it  being  still  extant  in  their  writings  that  they 
were  of  the  millennary  opinion,  Papias  before,  and 
Nepos  after,  were  censured  hardly,  and  the  opi- 
nion put  into  the  catalogue  of  heresies ;  and  yet 
these  men,  never  suspected  as  guilty,  but,  like  the 
children  of  the  captivity,  walked  in  the  midst  of 
the  flame,  and  not  so  much  as  the  smell  of  fire 
passed  on  them.  But  the  uncertainty  of  these 
things  is  very  memorable  in  the  story  of  Eusta- 
thius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  contesting  with  Eusebius 

*  "  Nicolaus  Antiochenus,  omnium  immunditiarum  condi- 
tor,  cboros  diixit  faemineos." — Ad  Ctesiph,  And  a^am :  "  Iste 
Nicolaus  Diaconus  ita  immundus  extitit  ut  etiam  in  prsBsepi 
Domini  nefas  perpetrarit." — Epist.  de  Fabiano  lapso. 

t  Lib.  iii.  Stromal.  |  Lib.  iii.  c.  26,  Hist. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  85 

Pamphilus :  Eustathius  accused  Eusebius  forgoing 
about  to  corrupt  the  Nicene  creed,  of  which  slan- 
der he  then  acquitted  himself  (saith  Socrates)  ;* 
and  yet  he  is  not  cleared  by  posterity,  for  still  he 
is  suspected,  and  his  fame  not  clear.  However, 
Eusebius  then  escaped  well ;  but,  to  be  quit  with 
his  adversary,  he  recriminates,  and  accuses  him  to 
be  a  favorer  of  Sabellius,  rather  than  of  the 
Nicene  canons :  an  imperfect  accusation,  God 
knows,  when  the  crime  was  a  suspicion,  provable 
only  by  actions  capable  of  divers  constructions, 
and  at  the  most  made  but  some  degrees  of  proba- 
bility, and  the  fact  itself  did  not  consist  in  any 
particular,  and  therefore  was  to  stand  or  fall,  to  be 
improved  or  lessened,  according  to  the  will  of  the 
judges,  whom  in  this  case  Eustathius,  by  his  ill 
fortune  and  a  potent  adversary,  found  harsh  to- 
wards him,  insomuch  that  he  was  for  heresy  de- 
posed in  the  synod  of  Antioch.  And  though  this 
was  laid  open  in  the  eye  of  the  world,  as  being 
most  ready  at  hand,  with  the  greatest  ease  charged 
upon  every  man,  and  with  greatest  difficulty  ac- 
quitted by  any  man,  yet  there  were  other  suspi- 
cions raised  upon  him  privately,  or  at  least  talked 
of  afterwards,  and  pretended  as  causes  of  his  de- 
privation, lest  the  sentence  should  seem  too  hard 
for  the  first  offence.  And  yet,  what  they  were  no 
man  could  tell,  saith  the  story.  But  it  is  observ- 
able what  Socrates  saith,  as  in  excuse  of  such 
proceedings  :t '  //  is  the  manner  among  the  bishops, 
when  they  accuse  them  that  are  deposed,  they  call 
them  wicked,  but  they  publish  not  the  actions  of 
their  impiety,'^     It  might  possibly  be   that  the 

*  Lib.  i.  c.  23. 

t  Tovro  Si  vTti  'n'a.vTcov  uoo^Ae-i  tav  KArmpovfAivtev  ttoiuv  ot 
t7ricrx.o?roi,  lisLrnycfuvvm  /uev  aat  eta-i^»  /".s-^oyrs?,  Tat;  clf  umnc 
T«c  aci^ikii  ill  Kr^zuffi, — Lib.  i.  c.  24. 


86  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

bishops  did  it  in  tenderness  of  their  reputation  : 
but  yet  hardly ;  for  to  punish  a  person  publicly 
and  highly  is  a  certain  declaring  the  person  pu- 
nished guilty  of  a  high  crime ;  and  then  to  conceal 
the  fault,  upon  pretence  to  preserve  his  reputation, 
leaves  every  man  at  liberty  to  conjecture  what  he 
pleaseth,  who  possibly  will  believe  it  worse  than 
it  is,  inasmuch  as  they  think  his  judges  so  chari- 
table as  therefore  to  conceal  the  fault,  lest  the 
publishing  of  it  should  be  his  greatest  punishment, 
and  the  scandal  greater  than  his  deprivation.* 
However,  this  course,  if  it  were  just  in  any,  was 
unsafe  in  all ;  for  it  might  undo  more  than  it  could 
preserve,  and  therefoi'e  is  of  more  danger  than  it 
can  be  of  charity.  It  is  therefore  too  probable 
that  the  matter  was  not  very  fair,  for  in  public 
sentence  the  acts  ought  to  be  public ;  but  that  they 
rather  pretend  heresy  to  bring  their  ends  about, 
shows  how  easy  it  is  to  impute  that  crime,  and 
hov/  forward  they  are  to  do  it.  And  that  they 
might  and  did  then  as  easily  call  heretic  as  after- 
ward, when  Vigilius  was  condemned  of  heresy, 
for  saying  there  were  antipodes ;  or  as  the  friars 
of  late  did,  who  suspected  Greek  and  Hebrew  of 
heresy,  and  called  their  professors  heretics,  and 
had  like  to  have  put  Terence  and  Demosthenes 
into  the  Index  Expurgatorius,  Sure  enough  they 
railed  at  them  pro  condone;  tlierefore,  because 
they  understood  them  not,  and  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve they  would  accidentally  be  enemies  to  tlieir 
reputation  among  the  people. 

By  this  instance,  which  was  a  while  after  the 
Nicene  council,  where  the  acts  of  the  church  were 
regular,  judicial,  and  orderly,  we  may  guess  at 

*  "  Simpliciter  pateat  vitiuin  fortasse  pusillum, 

Quod  tegitur,  majus  creditur  esse  malum."— Martial. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  87 

the  sentences  passed  upon  heresy,  at  such  times 
and  in  such  cases,  when  their  process  was  more 
private  and  their  acts  more  tumultuary,  their  in- 
formation less  certain,  and  therefore  their  mistakes 
more  easy  and  frequent.  And  it  is  remarkable  in 
the  case  of  the  heresy  of  Montanus,  the  scene  of 
whose  heresy  lay  within  the  first  three  hundred 
years,  though  it  was  represented  in  the  catalogues 
afterwards ;  and  possibly  the  mistake  concerning 
it  is  to  be  put  upon  the  score  of  Epiphanius,  by 
whom  Montanus  and  his  followers  were  put  into 
the  catalogue  of  heretics,  for  commanding  absti- 
nence from  meats,  as  if  they  were  unclean  and  of 
themselves  unlawful.  Now  the  truth  was,  Mon- 
tanus said  no  such  thing:  but  commanded  fre- 
quent abstinence,  enjoined  dry  diet  and  an  ascetic 
table,  not  for  conscience'  sake,  but  for  discipline ; 
and  jet,  because  he  did  this  with  too  much  rigor 
and  strictness  of  mandate,  the  primitive  church 
misliked  it  in  him,  as  being  too  near  their  error, 
who,  by  a  Judaical  superstition,  abstained  from 
meats  as  from  uncleanness.  This,  by  the  waj', 
will  much  concern  them  who  place  too  much 
sanctity  in  such  rites  and  acts  of  discipline ;  for 
it  is  an  eternal  rule,  and  of  never-failing  truth, 
that  such  abstinences,  if  they  be  obtruded  as  acts 
of  original  immediate  duty  and  sanctity,  are  un- 
lawful and  superstitious.  If  they  be  for  disci- 
pline, they  may  be  good,  but  of  no  very  great  profit  j 
it  is  that  bodily  exercise  which  St.  Paul  says  pro- 
fiteth  but  little ;  and  just  in  the  same  degree  the 
primitive  diurch  esteemed  them,  for  they  therefore 
reprehended  Montanus  for  urging  such  abstinences 
with  too  much  earnestness,  though  but  in  the  way 
of  discipline ;  for  that  it  was  no  more,  Tertullian^ 
who  was  himjself  a  Montanist,  and  knew  best  the 


88  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

Opinions  of  his  own  sect,  testifies ;  and  yet  Epipha- 
nius,  reporting  the  errors  of  Montanus,  commends 
that  which  Montanus  truly  and  really  taught, 
and  which  the  primitive  church,  condemned  in 
liim,  and  therefore  represents  that  heresy  to  an- 
other sense,  and  affixes  that  to  Montanus  which 
Epiphanius  believed  a  heresy,  and  yet  which  Mon- 
tanus did  not  teach.  And  this  also,  among  many 
other  things,  lessens  my  opinion  very  much  of  the 
integrity  or  discretion  of  the  old  catalogues  of 
heretics,  and  much  abates  my  confidence  towards 
them. 

And  now  that  I  have  mentioned  them  casually 
in  passing  by,  I  shall  give  a  short  account  of  them, 
for  men  are  much  mistaken :  some  in  their  opinions 
concerning  the  truth  of  them,  as  believing  them 
to  be  all  true;  some  concerning  their  purpose,  as 
thinking  them  sufficient  not  only  to  condemn  all 
those  opinions  there  called  heretical,  but  to  be  a 
precedent  to  all  ages  of  the  church  to  be  free  and 
forward  in  calling  heretic.  But  he  that  considers 
the  catalogues  themselves,  as  they  are  collected 
by  Epiphanius,  Philastrius,  and  St.  Austin,  shall 
find  that  many  are  reckoned  for  heretics  for  opi- 
nions in  matters  disputable  and  undetermined, 
and  of  no  consequence ;  and  that,  in  these  cata- 
logues of  heretics,  there  are  men  nun^ibered  for 
heretics  which  by  every  side  respectively  are  ac- 
quitted ;  so  that  there  is  no  company  of  men  in 
the  world  that  admit  these  catalogues  as  good 
records  or  sufficient  sentences  of  condemnation. 
For  the  churches  of  the  reformation,  I  am  certain 
they  acquit  Aerius  for  denying  prayer  for  the 
dead,  and  the  Eustathians  for  denying  invocation 
of  Saints.  And  I  am  partly  of  opinion,  that  the 
church  of  Rome  is  not  willing  to  call  the  Colly- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  8SJ 

ridians  heretics  for  offering  a  cake  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  unless  she  also  will  run  the  hazard  of  the 
same  sentence  for  offering  candles  to  her ;  and 
that  they  will  be  glad  with  St.  Austin  (1.  vi.  De 
Ha:;res.  c.  86.)  to  excuse  the  Tertullianists*  for 
picturing  God  in  a  visible,  corporal  representment. 
And  yet  these  sects  are  put  in  the  black  book  by 
Epiphanius,  and  St.  Austin,  and  Isidore  respect- 
ively. I  remember  also  that  the  Osseni  are 
called  heretics,  because  they  refused  to  v/orsliip 
towards  the  east;  and  yet  in  that  descent  I  find 
not  the  malignity  of  a  heresy,  nor  any  thing 
against  an  article  of  faith  or  good  manners ;  and 
it  being  only  in  circumstance,  it  were  hard,  if  they 
were  otherwise  pious  men  and  true  believers,  to 
send  them  to  hell  for  such  a  trifle.  The  Parerme- 
neutse  refused  to  follow  men^s  dictates  like  sheep, 
but  would  expound  Scripture  according  to  the  best 
evidence  themselves  could  find,  and  yet  were 
called  heretics,  v/hether  they  expounded  true  or 
no.  The  Pauliciani,!  for  being  oftended  at  crosses, 
the  Proclians,  for  saying,  in  a  regenerate  man  all 
his  sins  were  not  quite  dead,  but  only  curbed  and 
assuaged,  were  called  heretics,  and  so  condemned, 
for  ought  I  know,  for  affirming  that  which  all 
pious  men  feel  in  themselves  to  be  too  true.  And 
he  that  will  consider  how  nuiiierous  the  catalogues 
are,  and  to  what  a  volume  they  are  come  in  their 
last  collections,  to  no  less  than  five  hundred  and 
twenty  (for  so  many  heresies  and  heretics  are 
reckoned  by  Prateolus),  may  think  that  if  a  re- 
trenchment were  justly  made  of  truths,  and  all  im- 
pertinences, and  all  opinions,  either  still  disputable 
or  less  considerable,  the  number  would  much  de- 

*  D.  Thorn.  i^Contr.  Gent.  c.  21. 

t  Euthym.  pErft  i.  tit.  2!.    Epiphan,  Hceres.  64. 


90  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

crease ;  and  therefore  that  the  catalogues  are  much 
amiss,  and  the  name  heretic  is  made  a  bugbear  to 
affright  people  from  their  belief,  or  to  discounte- 
nance the  persons  of  men,  and  disrepute  them, 
that  their  schools  may  be  empty  and  their  disci- 
ples few. 

So  that  I  shall  not  need  to  instance  how  that 
some  men  were  called  heretics  by  Philastrius,  tor 
rejecting  the  translation  of  the  Seventy,  and  fol- 
lowing the  Bible  of  Aquila,  wherein  the  great 
faults  mentioned  by  Philastrius  are,  that  he  trans- 
lates ;^/o-Toy  Giou  not  Cliristum,  but  imciiim  Dei,  the 
Anointed  of  God ;  and  instead  of  Emanuel,  writes 
Bens  nobiscujn,  God  with  us.     But  this  most  con- 
cerns them  of  the  primitive  church,  with  whom 
tlie  translator  of  Aquila  was  in  great  reputation ; 
it  was  supposed  he  was  a  greater  clerk,  and  un- 
derstood more  than  ordinary.     It  may  be,  so  he 
did:  but  whether  yea  or  no,  yet  since  the  other 
translators,  by  the  confession  of  Philastrius,  when 
compelled  by  urgent  necessity,  did  pass  by  some 
things,  if  some  wise  men,  or  unwise,  did  follow  a 
translator  who  understood  the  original  well  (for 
so  Aquila  had  learnt  amongst  the  Jews),  it  was 
hard  to  call  men  heretics  for  following  his  transla- 
tion especially  since  the  other  Bibles  (which  were 
tliought  to  have  in  them  contradictories,  and' it 
was  confessed,  had  omitted  some  things)  were  ex- 
cused by  necessity ;  and  the  others'  necessity  of 
following  Aquila,  when  they  had  no  better,  was 
not  at  all  considered,  nor  a  less  crime  than  heresy 
laid   upon   their   score.      Such   another  was   the 
heresy  of  the  Quartodecimani;  for  the  Easterlings 
were  all  proclaimed  heretics,  for  keeping  Easter 
after  the  manner  of  the  east ;  and  as  Socrates  and 
Nicephorus  report,  the  bishop  of  Rome  v*r-s  very 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  91 

forward  to  excommunicate  all  the  bishops  of  the 
lesser  Asia,  for  observing  the  feast  according  to 
the  tradition  of  their  ancestors,  though  they  did  it 
modestly,  quietly,  and  without  faction ;  and  al- 
though they  pretended,  and  were  as  well  able  to 
prove  their  tradition  from  St.  John,  of  so  observing 
it,  as  the  western  church  could  prove  tlieir  tradi- 
tion derivative  from  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  If 
such  things  as  these  make  up  the  catalogues  of 
heretics  (as  we  see  they  did),  their  accounts  differ 
from  the  precedents  they  ought  to  have  followed ; 
that  is,  the  censures  apostolical ;  and  therefore  are 
unsafe  precedents  for  us;  and  unless  they  took 
tlie  liberty  of  using  the  word  heresy  in  a  lower 
sense  than  the  v/orld  now  doth,  since  the  councils 
have  been  forward  in  pronouncing  anathema,  and 
took  it  only  for  a  distinct  sense,  and  a  differing 
persuasion  in  matters  of  opinion  and  minute  arti- 
cles, we  cannot  excuse  the  persons  of  the  men ; 
but  if  they  intended  the  crime  of  heresy  against 
those  opinions,  as  they  laid  them  down  in  their 
catalogues,  that  crime  (I  say)  which  is  a  work  of 
the  flesh,  which  excludes  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  all  that  I  shall  say  against  them  is,  that 
the  causeless  curse  shall  return  empty,  and  no 
man  is  damned  the  sooner  because  his  enemy  cries 
'Oh,  accursed!'  and  they  that  were  the  judges 
and  accusers  might-'  err  as  well  as  the  person  ac- 
cused, and  might  need  as  charitable  construction 
of  their  opinions  and  practices  as  iho.  other.  And  of 
ruje  this  we  are  sure,  they  had  no  warrant  from  any 
of  Scripture,  or  practice  apostoHcal,  for  driving  so 
furiously  and  hastily  in  such  decretory  sentences. 
But  I  am  willing  rather  to  believe  their  sense  of  the 
word  heresy  was  more  gentle  than  with  us  it  is,  and 
for  that  they  might  have  warrant  from  Scripture. 


92  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

But,  by  the  way,  I  observe  that  although  these 
catalogues  are  a  great  instance  to  show  that  they 
whose  age  and  spirits  were  far  distant  from  the 
apostles,  had  also  other  judgments  concerning 
faith  and  heresy  than  the  apostles  had,  and  the 
ages  apostolical;  yet  these  catalogues,  although 
they  are  reports  of  heresies  in  the  second  and  third 
ages,  are  not  to  be  put  upon  the  account  of  those 
ages,  nor  to  be  reckoned  as  an  instance  of  their 
judgment;  which,  although  it  was  in  some  degrees 
more  culpable  than  that  of  their  predecessors,  yet 
in  respect  of  the  following  ages  it  was  innocent 
and  modest.  But  these  catalogues  I  speak  of  were 
set  down  according  to  the  sense  of  the  then  pre- 
sent ages,  in  which  as  they  in  all  probability  did 
differ  from  the  apprehensions  of  the  former  centu- 
ries, so  it  is  certain  there  were  differing  learnings, 
other  fancies,  divers  representments  and  judg- 
ments of  men,  depending  upon  circumstances, 
which  the  first  ages  knew  and  the  follovving  ages 
did  not :  and  therefore  the  catalogues  were  drawn 
with  some  truth,  but  less  certainty,  as  appears  in 
their  differing  about  the  authors  of  some  heresies, 
several  opinions  imputed  to  the  same,  and  some 
put  in  the  roll  of  heretics  by  one,  which  the  other 
left  out;  which  to  me  is  an  argument  that  the  col- 
lectors were  determined,  not^by  the  sense  and 
sentences  of  the  three  first  a'ges,  but  by  them- 
selves, and  some  circumstances  about  them,  which 
to  reckon  for  heretics,  which  not.  And  that  they 
themselves  were  the  prime  judges,  or  perhaps 
some  in  their  own  age  together  with  them:  but 
there  was  not  any  sufficient  external  judicatory, 
competent  to  declare  heresy,  that  by  any  public 
or  sufficient  sentence  or  acts  of  court  had  fur- 
nished them  with  warrant  for  their  catalogues. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  93 

And  therefore  they  are  no  argument  sufficient  that 
tlie  first  ages  of  the  church,  which  certainly  were 
the  best,  did  much  recede  from  that  which  I 
showed  to  be  the  senee  of  the  Scripture  and  the 
practice  of  the  apostles ;  they  all  contented  them- 
selves with  the  apostles'  creed  as  the  rule  of  the 
faith,  and  therefore  were  not  forward  to  judge  of 
heresy  but  by  analogy  to  their  rule  of  faith  ;  and 
those  catalogues  made  after  these  ages  are  not  suf- 
ficient arguments  that  they  did  otherwise,  but 
rather  of  the  weakness  of  some  persons,  or  of  the 
spirit  and  genius  of  the  age  in  which  the  compilers 
lived,  in  which  the  device  of  calling  all  differing 
opinions  by  the  name  of  heresies,  might  grow  to 
be  a  design  to  serve  ends,  and  to  promote  in- 
terests, as  often  as  an  act  of  zeal  and  just  indig- 
nation against  evil  persons,  destroyers  of  the  faith, 
and  corrupters  of  manners. 

For  wliatever  private  men's  opinions  were,  yet, 
till  the  Nicene  council,  the  rule  of  faith  was  entire 
in  the  apostles'  creed;  and  provided  they  retained 
that  easily,  they  broke  not  the  utility  of  faith  liow- 
ever  differing  opinions  might  possibly  commence 

in  such  thino;s  in  which  a  libertv  were  better  suf- 

.  .  .  "^ 

fered  than  prohibited  with  a  breach  of  charity. 

And  this  appears  exactly  in  the  question  between 
St.  Cyprian,  of  Cartl.age,  and  Stephen,  bishop  of 
Rome,  in  which  one  instance  it  is  easy  to  see 
what  was  lawful  and  safe  for  a  wise  and  good 
man,  and  yet  how  others  began  even  then,  to  be 
abused  by  that  temptation,  v/hich  since  hath  in- 
vaded all  Christendom.  St.  Cyprian  rebaptized 
heretics,  and  thought  he  was  bound  so  to  do ;  calls 
a  synod  in  Africa,  as  being  metropolitan,  and 
confirms  his  opinions,  by  the  consent  of  his  suf- 
fragans  and   brethren,   but   still   with   so   much 


94  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

modesty,  that  if  any  man  was  of  another  opinion,  he 
judged  him  not,  but  gave  him  that  liberty  that  he 
desired  himself ;  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  grows 
angry,  excommunicates  the  bishops  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  that  in  divers  synods  had  consented  to  re- 
baptization,  and,  without  peace  and  without  cha- 
rity, condemns  them  for  heretics.     Indeed,  here 
was  the  rarest  mixture  and  conjunction  of  un- 
likelihoods that  I  have  observed.     Here  was  error 
of  opinion  with  much  modesty  and  sweetness  of 
temper  on  one  side ;  and  on  the  other,  an  over- 
active and  impetuous  zeal  to  attest  a  truth.  It  uses 
not  to  be  so,  for  error  usually  is  supported  with 
confidence,  and  truth  suppressed  and  discounte- 
nanced by  indifferency.     But  that  it  might  appear 
that  the  error  was  not  the  sin  but  the  uncharita- 
bleness,  Stephen  was  accounted  a  zealous  and 
furious  person,  and  St.  Cyprian,*  though  deceived, 
yet  a  very  good  man,  and  of  great  sanctity.     For 
although  every  error  is  to  be  opposed,  yet  accord- 
ing to  the  variety  of  errors  so  is  there  variety  of 
proceedings.    If  it  be  against  faith,  that  is,  a  de- 
struction of  any  part  of  the  foundation,  it  is  with 
zeal  to  be  resisted ;  and  we  have  for  it  an  apos- 
tolical warrant,  *  Contend  earnestly  for  the  faith :' 
but  then,  as  these  things  recede  farther  from  the 
foundation,  our  certainty  is  the  less,  and  their  ne- 
cessity not  so  much ;  and  therefore  it  were  very 
fit  that  our  confidence  should  be  according  to  our 
evidence,  and  our  zeal  according  to  our  confi- 
dence, and  our  confidence  should  then  be  the  rule 
of  our  communion ;  and  the  lightness  of  an  arti- 
cle should  be  considered  with  the  weight  of  a 
precept  of  charity.     And  therefore,  there  are  some 

*  Vid.  St.  Aug.  lib.  ii.  c.  6.  De  Baptis.  contra  Donat. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  95 

errors  to  be  reproved,  rather  by  a  private  friend 
than  a  publijc  censure,  and  the  persons  of  the  men 
not  avoided,  but  admonished,  and  their  doctrine 
rejected,  not  their  communion ;  few  opinions  are 
of  that  malignity  which  are  to  be  rejected  with 
the  same  exterminating  spirit,  and  confidence  of 
aversation,  with  which  the  first  teachers  of  Chris- 
tianity condemned  Ebion,  Manes,  and  Cerinthus ; 
and  in  the  condemnation  of  heretics,  the  personal 
iniquity  is  more  considerable  than  the  obliquity 
of  the  doctrine,  not  for  the  rejection  of  the  article, 
but  for  censuring  the  persons  ;  and  therefore  it  is 
the  piety  of  the  man  that  excused  St.  Cyprian, 
wliich  is  a  certain  argument  that  it  is  not  the  opi- 
nion, but  the  impiety  that  condemns  and  makes 
the  heretic.  And  this  was  it  which  Vincentius 
Lirinensis  said,  in  this  very  case  of  St.  Cyprian ; 
**  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  we  judge  the  catholic 
authors  and  the  heretics  that  followed,  to  be  of 
one  and  the  same  opinion.  We  excuse  the  teach- 
ers, and  condemn  the  scholars.  They  who  wrote 
the  books  are  the  inheritors  of  heaven,  while  the 
defenders  of  these  very  books  are  thinist  down  to 
hell."*  Which  saying,  if  we  confront  against  the 
saying  of  Salvian,  condemning  the  first  authors  of 
the  Arian  sect,  and  acquitting  the  followers,  we 
are  taught  by  these  two  wise  men,  that  an  error  is 
not  it  that  sends  a  man  to  hell,  but  he  that  begins 
the  heresy,  and  is  the  author  of  the  sect,  is  the 
man  marked  out  to  ruin ;  and  his  followers  es- 
caped, when  the  heresiarch  commenced  the  error 
upon  pride  and  ambition,  and  his  followers  went 

*  "  Unius  et  ejusdem  opinionis  (minim  videri  potest)  judi- 
camus  authores  catholicos,  et  sequaces  haereticos.  Excusa- 
mus  magistros,  et  condcmnamus  scholasticos.  Qui  scripserunt 
libros  sunt  haeredes  ccbU,  quorum  librorum  defensores  detru- 
duntur  ad  infernum."— Adv.  Hseres.  c.  ii. 


96  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

after  him  in  simplicity  of  their  heart ;  and  so  it 
was  most  commonly ;  but  on  the  contrary,  when 
the  first  man  in  the  opinion  was  honestly  and  in- 
vincibly deceived,  as  St.  Cyprian  was,  and  that 
his  scholars,  to  maintain  their  credit,  or  their  ends 
maintained  the  opinion,  not  for  the  excellency  of 
the  reason  persuading,  but  for  the  benefit  and  ac- 
cruments,  or  peevishness,  as  did  the  Donatists, 
who,  as  St.  Austin  said  of  them,  indulged  them- 
selves in  their  lusts,  upon  t\\c  supposed  authority 
of  Cyprian ;  then  the  scholars  are  the  heretics, 
and  the  master  is  a  catholic.  For  his  error  is  not 
the  heresy  formally,  and  an  erring  person  may  be 
a  catholic.  A  wicked  person  in  his  error  becomes 
heretic,  when  the  good  man  in  the  same  error  shall 
have  all  the  rewards  of  faith.  For  whatever  an  ill 
man  believes,  if  he  therefore  believe  it  because  it 
serves  his  own  ends,  be  his  belief  true  or  false, 
the  man  hath  an  heretical  inind ;  for  to  serve  his 
own  ends,  his  mind  is  prepared  to  believe  a  lie. 
But  a  good  man,  that  believes  what  according  to 
liis  light,  and  upon  the  use  of  his  moral  industry 
he  thinks  true,  whether  he  hits  upon  the  right  or 
no,  because  he  hath  a  mind  desirous  of  truth,  and 
prepared  to  believe  every  truth,  is  therefore  ac- 
ceptable to  God ;  because  nothing  hindered  him 
from  it  but  what  he  could  not  help,  his  misery  and 
his  weakness,  which  being  imperfections  merely 
natural,  which  God  never  punishes,  he  stands  fair 
for  a  blessing  of  his  morality,  which  God  always 
accepts.  So  that  now,  if  Stephen  had  followed 
the  example  of  God  Almighty,  or  retained  but  the 
same  peaceable  spirit  which  his  brother  of  Car- 
thage did,  he  might,  with  more  advantage  to  truth, 
and  reputation  both  of  wisdom  and  piety,  have 
done  his  duty  in  attesting  what  he  believed  to  be 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  97 

true;  for  we  are  as  much  bound  to  be  zealous 
pursuers  of  peace,  as  earnest  contenders  for  the 
faith.  I  am  sure,  more  earnest  we  ought  to  be  for 
the  peace  of  the  church,  than  for  an  article  which 
is  not  of  the  faith,  as  this  question  of  rebaptiza- 
tion  was  not ;  for  St.  Cyprian  died  in  belief  against 
it,  and  yet  was  a  catholic,  and  a  martyr  for  the 
Christian  faith. 

The  sum  is  this,  St.  Cyprian  did  right  in  a 
wrong  cause  (as  it  hath  been  since  judged);  and 
Stephen  did  ill  in  a  good  cause.  As  far,  then,  as 
piety  and  charity  is  to  be  preferred  before  a  true 
opinion,  so  far  is  St.  Cyprian's  practice  a  better 
precedent  for  us,  and  an  example  of  primitive 
sanctity,  than  the  zeal  and  indiscretion  of  Stephen ; 
St.  Cyprian  had  not  learned  to  forbid  to  any  one 
a  liberty  of  prophesying  or  interpretation,  if  he 
transgressed  not  the  foundation  of  faith  and  the 
creed  of  the  apostles. 

Well,  thus  it  was,  and  thus  it  ought  to  be,  in 
the  first  ages,  the  faith  of  Christendom  rested  still 
upon  the  same  foundation,  and  the  judgments  of 
heresies  were  accordingly,  or  were  amiss ;  but  the 
first  great  violation  of  this  truth  was,  when  ge- 
neral councils  came  in,  and  the  symbols  were 
enlarged,  and  new  articles  were  made  as  much  of 
necessity  to  be  believed  as  the  creed  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  damnation  threatened  to  them  that  did 
dissent;  and  at  last  the  creeds  multiplied  in 
number,  and  in  articles,  and  the  liberty  of  pro- 
phesying began  to  be  something  restrained. 

And  this  was  of  so  much  the  more  force  and 
efficacy,  because  it  began  upon  great  reason,  and 
in  the  first  instance,  with  success  good  enough. 
For  I  am  much  pleased  with  the  enlarging  of  the 
creed,  which  the  council  of  Nice  made,  because 
9 


98  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

they  enlarged  it  to  my  sense ;  but  I  am  not  sure 
that  others  are  satisfied  with  it;  while  we  look 
upon  the  article  they  did  determine,  we  see  all 
things  well  enough ;  but  there  are  some  wise  per- 
sonages consider  it  in  all  circumstances,  and  think 
the  church  had  been  more  happy  if  she  had  not 
been  in  some  sense  constrained  to  alter  the 
simplicity  of  her  faith,  and  make  it  more  curious 
and  articulate,  so  much  that  he  had  need  be  a 
subtle  man  to  understand  the  very  words  of  the 
new  determinations. 

For  the  first  Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
in  the  presence  of  his  clergy,  entreats  somewhat 
more  curiously  of  the  secret  of  the  mysterious 
Trinity  and  Unity;  so  curiously,  that  Arius'-  (who 
was  a  sophistcr  too  subtle  as  it  afterward  appeared) 
misunderstood  him ;  and  thought  he  intended  to 
bring  in  the  heresy  of  Sabeilius.  For  while  he 
taught  the  unity  of  the  Trinity,  either  he  did  it  so 
inartificially  or  so  intricately,  that  Arius  thought 
he  did  not  distinguish  the  persons,  when  the 
bishop  intended  only  the  unity  of  nature.  Against 
this  Arius  furiously  drives ;  and  to  confute 
Sabeilius,  and  in  him  (as  he  thought)  the  bishop, 
distinguishes  the  natures  too,  and  so  to  secure  the 
article  of  the  Trinity,  destroys  the  Unity.  It  was 
the  first  time  the  question  was  disputed  in  the 
world ;  and  in  such  mysterious  niceties,  possibly 
every  wise  man  may  understand  something,  but 
few  can  understand  all,  and  tlierefore  suspect  what 
they  understand  not,  and  are  furiously  zealous  for 
that  part  of  it  which  they  do  perceive.  Well,  it 
happened  in  these  as  always  in  such  cases,  in 
things  men  understand  not  they  are  most  impetu- 

*  Socra.  lib.  i.  c.  8. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  99 

ous ;  and  because  suspicion  is  a  thing  infinite  in 
degrees,  for  it  hath  nothing  to  determine  it,  a 
suspicious  person  is  ever  most  violent ;  for  his  fears 
are  worse  than  the  thing  feared,  because  the  thing  is 
limited,  but  his  fears  are  not;  so  that  upon  this 
grew   contentions   on   both   sides,  and   tumults, 
railing  and  reviling  each  other;*   and  then  the 
laity  were  drawn  into  parts,  and  the  Meletians 
abetted  the  wrong  part,  and  the  right  part,  fearing 
to  be  overborne,  did  any  thing  that  was  next  at 
hand  to  secure  itself.    Now,  then,  they  that  lived 
in  that  age,  that  understood  the  men,  that  saw 
how  quiet  the  church  was  before  this  stir,  how 
miserably  rent  now,  what  little  benefit  from  the 
question,  what  schism  about  it,  gave  other  censures 
of  the  business  than  we  since  have  done,  who  only 
look  upon  the  article  determined  with  truth  and 
approbation  of  the  church  generally  since  that 
time.    But  the  epistle  of  Constantine  to  Alexander 
and  AriuSjt  tells  the  truth,  and  chides  them  both 
for   commencing  the    question;    Alexander    for 
broaching  it,  Arius  for  taking  it  up :  and  although 
this  be  true,  that  it  had  been  better  for  the  church 
it  never  had  begun,  yet,  being  begun,  what  is  to 
be  done  in  it  ?     Of  this,  also,  in  that  admirable 
epistle,  we  have  the  emperor's  judgment  (I  sup- 
pose not  without  the  advice  and  privity  of  Hosius, 
bishop  of  Corduba,  whom  the  emperor  loved  and 
trusted  much,  and  employed  in  the  delivery  of  the 
letters);  for  first  he  calls  it,  "  a  certain  vain  piece 
of  a  question,  ill  begun  and  more  unadvisedly 
published ;  a  question  which  no  law  or  ecclesiastical 
canon  defineth;  a  fruitless  contention,  the  product 
of  idle  brains ;  a  matter  so  nice,  so  obscure,  so 

*  Id.  Ub.  i.  c.  6.  t  Cap.  7. 


100  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

intricate,  that  it  was  neither  to  be  explicated  by 
the  clergy,  nor  understood  by  the  people ;  a  dispute 
of  words ;  a  doctrine  inexplicable,  but  most  dan- 
gerous when  taught,  lest  it  introduce  discord  or 
blasphemy ;  and  therefore,  the  objector  was  rash, 
and  the  answer  unadvised ;  for  it  concerned  not 
the  substance  of  faith,  or  the  worship  of  God,  nor 
any  chief  commandment  of  Scripture,  and  there- 
fore,  why  should  it  be  the  matter  of  discord? 
For  though  the  matter  be  grave ;  yet,  because 
neither  necessary  nor  explicable,  the  contention  is 
trifling  and  toyish.  And  therefore,  as  the  phi- 
losophers of  the  same  sect,  though  differing  in 
explication  of  an  opinion,  yet  more  love  for  the 
unity  of  their  profession,  than  disagree  for  the 
difference  of  opinion ;  so  should  Christians,  be- 
lieving in  the  same  God,  retaining  the  same  faith, 
having  the  same  hopes,  opposed  by  the  same  ene- 
mies, not  fall  at  variance  upon  such  disputes, 
considering  our  understandings  are  not  all  alike, 
and  therefore,  neither  can  our  opinions  in  such 
mysterious  articles :  so  that  the  matter  being  of 
no  great  importance,  but  vain,  and  a  toy,  in 
respect  of  the  excellent  blessings  of  peace  and 
charity,  it  were  good  that  Alexander  and  Arius 
should  leave  contending,  keep  their  opinions  to 
themselves,  ask  each  other  forgiveness,  and  give 
mutual  toleration."  This  is  the  substance  of 
Constantine's  letter,  and  it  contains  in  it  much 
reason,  if  he  did  not  undervalue  the  question ;  but 
it  seems  it  was  not  then  thought  a  question  of  faith, 
but  of  nicety  of  dispute ;  they  both  did  believe 
one  God,  and  the  Holy  Trinity.  Now,  tlien,  that 
he  afterward  called  the  Nicene  council,  it  was 
upon  occasion  of  the  vileness  of  the  men  of  the 
Arian  part,  their  eternal  discord  and  pertinacious 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  101 

wrangling,  and  to  bring  peace  into  the  church; 
that  was  the  necessity ;  and  in  order  to  it  was  the 
determination  of  the  article.  But  for  the  article 
itself,  the  letter  declares  what  opinion  he  had  of 
that,  and  this  letter  was  by  Socrates  called  "  a 
wonderful  exhortation,  full  of  grace  and  sober 
counsels ;"  and  such  as  Hosius  himself,  who  was 
the  messenger,  pressed  with  all  earnestness,  with 
all  the  skill  and  authority  he  had. 

I  know  the  opinion  the  world  had  of  the  article 
afterwards,  is  quite  diftering  from  this  censure 
given  of  it  before;  and  therefore  they  have  put  it 
into  the  creed  (I  suppose)  to  bring  the  world  to 
unity,  and  to  prevent  sedition  in  this  question, 
and  the  accidental  blasphemies,  which  were  oc- 
casioned by  their  curious  talkings  of  such  secret 
mysteries,  and  by  their  illiterate  resolutions.  But 
although  the  article  was  determined  with  an  ex- 
cellent spirit,  and  we  all,  with  much  reason  pro- 
fess to  believe  it;  yet  it  is  another  consideration, 
whether  or  no  it  might  not  have  been  better  de- 
termined, if  with  more  simplicity;  and  another 
yet,  whether  or  no,  since  many  of  the  bishops  who 
did  believe  this  thing  yet  did  not  like  the  nicety 
and  curiosity  of  expressing  it,  it  had  not  been 
more  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the  apostles,  to 
have  made  a  determination  of  the  article  by  way 
of  exposition  of  the  apostles'  creed,  and  to  have 
left  this  in  a  rescript  for  record  to  all  posterity, 
and  not  to  have  enlarged  the  creed  with  it ;  for 
since  it  was  an  explication  of  an  article  of  the 
creed  of  the  apostles,  as  sermons  are  of  places  of 
Scripture,  it  was  thought  by  some,  that  Scripture 
might,  with  good  profit  and  great  truth,  be  ex- 
pounded, and  yet  the  expositions  not  put  into  the 
canon,  or  go  for  Scripture,  but  that  left  still  in  the 
9* 


102  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

naked  original  simplicity ;  and  so  much  the  rather, 
since  that  explication  was  further  from  the  foun- 
dation, and  though  most  certainly  true,  yet  not 
penned  by  so  infallible  a  spirit,  as  was  that  of  the 
apostles,  and  therefore  not  with  so  much  evidence 
as  certainty.  And  if  they  had  pleased,  they  might 
have  made  use  of  an  admirable  precedent  to  this 
and  many  other  great  and  good  purposes ;  no  less 
than  of  the  blessed  apostles,  whose  symbol  they 
might  have  imitated  with  as  much  simplicity  as 
they  did  the  expressions  of  Scripture  when  they 
first  composed  it.  For  it  is  most  considerable, 
that  although,  in  reason,  every  clause  in  the  creed 
should  be  clear,  and  so  inopportune  and  unapt  to 
variety  of  interpretation,  that  there  might  be  no 
place  left  for  several  senses  or  variety  of  exposi- 
tions ;  jeU  when  they  thought  fit  to  insert  some 
mysteries  into  the  creed,  which  in  Scripture  were 
expressed  in  so  mysterious  words,  that  the  last 
and  most  explicit  sense  would  still  be  latent,  yet 
they  who  (if  ever  any  did)  understood  all  the 
senses  and  secrets  of  it,  thought  it  not  tit  to  use 
any  words  but  the  words  of  Scripture  particu- 
larly in  the  articles  of  Christ's  descending  into 
hell,  and  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  to  show 
us  that  those  creeds  are  best  which  keep  tlie  very 
words  of  Scripture ;  and  that  faith  is  best  which 
hath  greatest  simplicity ;  and  that  it  is  better,  in 
all  cases,  humbly  to  submit,  than  curiously  to  in- 
quire and  pry  into  the  mystery  under  the  cloud, 
and  to  hazard  our  faith  by  improving  our  know- 
ledge :  if  the  Nicene  fathers  bad  done  so  too,  pos- 
sibly the  church  never  would  have  repented  it. 

And  indeed  the  experience  the  cliurch  had  af- 
terwards, showed  that  the  bishops  and  priests 
were  not  satisfied  in  all  circumstances,  nor  the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  105 

schism  appeased,  nor  the  persons  agreed,  nor  the 
canons  accepted,  nor  the  article  understood,  nor 
any  thing  right,  but  when  they  were  overborne 
with  authority,  which  authority,  when  the  scales 
turned,  did  the  same  service  and  promotion  to  the 
contrary. 

But  it  is  considerable  that  it  was  not  the  ar-. 
tide  or  the  thing  itself  that  troubled  the  disagree- 
ing persons,  but  the  manner  of  representing  it ; 
for  the  five  dissenters,  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia, 
Theognis,  Maris,  Theonas,  and  Secundus,  be- 
lieved Christ  to  be  very  God  of  very  God ;  but  the 
clause  of  /AoouTm  they  derided,  as  being  persuad- 
ed by  their  logic  that  he  was  neither  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Father,  by  division,  as  a  piece  of 
a  lump,  nor  derivation,  as  children  from  their 
parents,  nor  by  production,  as  buds  from  trees ; 
and  nobody  could  tell  them  any  other  way  at  tliat 
time,  and  that  made  the  fire  to  burn  still.  And  that 
was  it  I  said;  if  the  article  had  been  with  more 
simplicity  and  less  nicety  determined,  charity 
would  have  gained  more,  and  faith  would  have 
lost  nothing.  And  we  shall  find  the  wisest  of 
them  all,  for  so  Eusebius  Pamphilus*  was  esteem- 
ed, published  a  creed  or  confession  in  the  synod ; 
and  though  he  and  all  the  rest  believed  that  great 
mystery  of  godliness,  '  God  manifested  in  the 
flesh,'  yet  he  was  not  fully  satisfied ;  nor  so  soon 
of  the  clause  of  '  one  substance,'  till  he  had  done 
a  little  violence  to  his  own  understanding ;  for 
even  when  he  had  subscribed  to  the  clause  of 
*  one  substance,'  he  does  it  with  a  protestation, 
that  "  heretofore  he  had  never  been  acquainted, 
nor  accustomed  himself  to  such  speeches.     And 

*  Vide  Sozomen,  lib.  ii.  c.  18. 


104  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  sense  of  the  word  was  either  so  ambiguous,  or 
their  meaning  so  uncertain,  that  Andreas  Fricius^ 
does,  with  some  probability,  dispute  that  the  Ni- 
cene  fathers,  bj  ofj<.oov<no':,  did  mean  likeness  to  the 
Father,  not  unity  of  essence.^  Sjlva,  iv.  c.  1. 
And  it  was  so  well  understood  by  personages  dis- 
interested, that  when  Arius  and  Euzoius  had  con- 
fessed Christ  to  be  Deus  verbum,  without  inserting 
the  clause  of '  one  substance,'  the  emperor,  by  his 
letter,  approved  of  liis  faith,  and  restored  him  to 
his  country  and  office,  and  the  communion  of  the 
church.  And  a  long  time  after  although  the  ar- 
ticle was  believed  with  nicety  enough,:]:  yet  when 
they  added  more  words  still  to  the  mystery,  and 
brought  in  tlie  word  vTrofyT-jLo-i^,  (hypostasis)  saying 
there  were  three  hypostases  in  the  lioly  Tiinity, 
it  was  so  long  before  it  could  be  understood,  that 
it  was  believed  therefore,  because  they  would  not 
oppose  their  superiors,  or  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
church  in  things  which  tliey  thought  could  not 
be  understood  :  insomuch  that  St.  Jerome  writ  to 
Damascus ;  "Pray  determine,  for  I  shall  not  hesi- 
tate to  speak  of  three  hypostases,  if  you  command 
me  :"  and  again :  '^  I  implore  thee,  by  the  Savior 
of  the  world  and  the  United  Trinity,  that  thou 
wouldst  authorize  me,  by  thy  letters,  either  to 
speak  or  to  be  silent  on  the  subject  of  the  hypos- 
tases."§ 


*  Socrat.  lib.  i.  cap.  26. 

t  "  Patris  similitudinein,  non  essentiac  unilatetn." 

X  "It  was  no  injudicious  application  that  some  cue  made 
of  the  saying  of  Ariston,  the  philosopher,  to  the  nice  expo- 
sition of  this  mystery ;  '  Black  hellebore  cleanses  and  heals, 
if  it 'be  taken  in  a  state  of  consistence;  but  when  bruised 
and  broken  small,  it  suflbcates.'  " 

§  "  Discerne,  si  placet,  obsecro ;  non  timebo  tres  hyposta- 
ses dicere  si  jubetis. — Obtestor  beatitudinem  tuam  per  crn- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  105 

But  without  all  questions,  the  fathers  deter- 
mined the  question  with  much  truth;  though  I 
cannot  saj  the  arguments  upon  which  they  built 
their  decrees  were  so  good  as  the  conclusion  itself 
was  certain  ;  but  that  which  in  this  case  is  consi- 
derable, is,  whether  or  no  they  did  well  in  putting 
a  curse  to  the  foot  of  their  decree,  and  the  decree 
itself  into  the  symbol,  as  if  it  had  been  of  the  same 
necessity.  For  the  curse,  Eusebius  Pamphilus 
could  hardly  find  in  his  heart  to  subscribe ;  at  last 
he  did ;  but  with  this  clause,  that  he  subscribed  it 
because  the  form  of  curse  did  only  "  forbid  men 
to  acquaint  themselves  with  foreign  speeches  and 
unwritten  languages,"  whereby  confusion  and  dis- 
cord is  brought  into  the  church.  So  that  it  was 
not  so  much  a  magisterial  high  assertion  of  the 
article,  as  an  endeavor  to  secure  the  peace  of  the 
church.  And  to  the  same  purpose,  for  aught  I 
know,  the  fathers  composed  a  form  of  confession, 
not  as  a  prescript  rule  of  faith,  to  build  the  hopes 
of  our  salvation  on,  but  as  a  tessera  (mark)  of  that 
communion,  which  by  public  authority  was  there- 
fore established  upon  those  articles  because  the  ar- 
ticles were  true,  though  not  of  prime  necessity, 
and  because  that  unity  of  confession  was  judged, 
as  things  then  stood,  the  best  preserver  of  the  unity 
of  minds. 

But  I  shall  observe  this,  that  although  the  Ni- 
cene  fathers,  in  that  case,  at  that  time,  and  in  tb.at 
conjuncture  of  circumstances,  did  well  (and  yet 
their  approbation  is  made  by  after  ages  ex  post 
facto),  yet,  if  this  precedent  had  been  followed 
by  all   councils  (and  certainly   they  had  equal 

cifixummundi  Salutem,  per  oy.oovinov  Trinitatem,  ut  inihi 
epistolis  tuis,  sive  tacendarum  sive  dicendariim  hypostaseon 
detur  authoritas." 


106  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

power,  if  thej  had  thought  it  equally  reasonable), 
and  that  they  had  put  all  their  decrees  into  the 
creed,  as  some  have  done  since,  to  what  a  volume 
liad  the  creed  by  this  time  swelled !  and  all  the 
house  had  run  into  foundation,  nothing  left  for 
superstructures.  But  that  they  did  not,  it  appears 
first,  that  since  they  thought  all  their  decrees  true, 
yet  they  did  not  think  them  all  necessary,  at  least 
not  in  that  degree ;  and  that  they  published  such 
decrees,  they  did  it  declaratively,  not  imperative- 
ly ;  as  doctors  in  their  chairs,  not  masters  of  other 
men's  faith  and  consciences.  Secondly,  and  yet 
there  is  some  more  modesty  or  wariness,  or  neces- 
sity (what  shall  I  call  it  ?)  than  this  comes  to  : 
ibr  why  are  not  all  controversies  determined  ?  but 
even  when  general  assemblies  of  prelates  have 
been,  some  controversies  that  have  been  very  vexa- 
tious, have  been  pretermitted,  and  others  of  less 
consequence  have  been  determined.  Why  did 
never  any  general  council  condemn,  in  express  sen- 
tence, the  Pelagian  heresy,  that  great  pest,  that  sub- 
tle infection  of  Christendom?  and  yet  divers  ge- 
neral councils  did  assemble  while  the  heresy  was  in 
the  world.  Soth  these  cases,  in  several  degrees, 
leave  men  in  their  liberty  of  believing  and  prophe- 
sying. The  latter  proclaims,  that  all  controversies 
cannot  be  determined  to  sufficient  purposes,  and  the- 
lirst  declares,  that  those  that  are,  are  not  all  of  them 
matters  of  faith,  and  themselves  are  not  so  secure 
but  they  may  be  deceived ;  and  therefore  possibly, 
it  were  better  it  were  let  alone;  for  if  the  latter 
leaves  them  divided  in  their  opinions,  yet  their 
communions,  and  therefore  probably  their  chari- 
ties, are  not  divided  ;  but  the  former  divides  their 
communions,  and  hinders  their  interest ,  and  yet 
for  aught  is  certain,  the  accused  person  is  the 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROrilESYING.  107 

better  catholic.  And  yet  after  all  this,  it  is  not 
safety  enough  to  say,  let  the  council  or  prelates 
determine  articles  warily,  seldom,  with  great  cau- 
tion and  with  much  sweetness  and  modesty ;  for 
though  this  be  better  than  to  do  it  rashly,  fre- 
quently, and  furiously,  yet  if  we  once  tr^insgress 
the  bounds  set  us  by  the  apostles  in  their  creed, 
and  not  only  preach  other  truths,  but  determine 
them  magisterially  as  well  as  exegetically,  al- 
though tliere  be  no  error  in  the  subject-matter 
(as  in  Nice  there  was  none),  yet  if  the  next  ages 
say  they  will  determine  another  article,  with  as 
much  care  and  caution,  and  pretend  as  great  a 
necessity,  there  is  no  hindering  them  but  by  giving 
reasons  against  it ,  and  so,  like  enough  they  might 
have  done  against  the  decreeing  the  article  at 
Nice;  yet  that  is  not  sufficient;  for  since  the  au- 
thority of  the  Nicene  council  hath  grown  to  the 
height  of  a  mountainous  prejudice  against  him 
that  should,  say  it  was  ill  done,  the  same  reason 
and  the  same  necessity  may  be  pretended  by  any 
age  and  in  any  council,  and  they  think  themselves 
warranted,  by  the  great  precedent  at  Nice,  to  pro- 
ceed as  peremptorily  as  they  did ;  but  then,  if  any 
other  assembly  of  learned  men  may  possibly  be 
deceived,  were  it  not  better  they  should  spare  the 
labor,  than  that  they  should,  with  so  great  pomp 
and  solemnities,  engage  men's  persuasions,  and 
determine  an  article  which  after  ages  must  re- 
scind !  For  therefore,  most  certainly  in  their  own 
age,  the  point,  with  safety  of  faith  and  salvation, 
might  have  been  disputed  and  disbelieved  ;  and 
that  many  men's  faitlis  have  been  tied  up  by 
acts  and  decrees  of  councils,  for  those  articles 
in  which  the  next  age  did  see  a  liberty  had  better 
been  preserved,  because  an  error  wa3  determined, 


108  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

we  shall  afterwards  receive  a  more  certain  ac- 
count. 

And  therefore  the  council  of  Nice  did  well,  and 
Constantinople  did  well;  so  did  Ephesus  and 
Chalcedon;  but  it  is  because  the  articles  were 
truly  determined  (for  that  is  the  part  of  my  be- 
lief) :  but  who  is  sure  it  should  be  so  beforehand, 
and  whether  the  points  there  determined  were  ne- 
cessary or  no  to  be  believed  or  to  be  determined. 
If  peace  had  been  concerned  in  it,  through  the  fac- 
tion and  division  of  the  parties,  I  suppose  the 
judgment  of  Constantine,  the  emperor,  and  the 
famous  Hosius  of  Corduba,  is  sufficient  to  instruct 
us  ;  whose  authority  I  rather  urge  than  reasons, 
because  it  is  a  prejudice  and  not  a  reason  I  am  to 
contend  against. 

So  that  such  determination  and  publishing  of 
confessions,  with  authority  of  prince  and  bishop, 
are  sometimes  of  very  good  use  for  the  peace  of 
the  clmrch  ;  and  they  are  good  also  to  determine 
the  judgment  of  indifferent  persons,  whose  reasons 
of  either  side  are  not  too  great  to  weigh  down  the 
probability  of  that  authority  ;  but  for  persons  of 
confident  and  imperious  understandings,  they  on 
whose  side  the  determination  is,  are  armed  with  a 
prejudice  against  the  other,  and  with  a  weapon  to 
affront  them,  but  with  no  more  to  convince  them  ; 
and  they  against  whom  the  decision  is,  do  the 
more  readily  betake  themselves  to  the  defensive, 
and  are  engaged  upon  contestation  and  public  en- 
mities, for  such  articles  which  either  might  safely 
have  been  unknown,  or  with  much  charity  dis- 
puted. Therefore  the  Nicene  council,  although  it 
have  the  advantage  of  an  acquired  and  prescribing" 
authority,  yet  it  must  not  become  a  precedent  to 
othersj   lest   the   inconveniences   of  multiplying 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  109 

more  articles,  upon  as  great  pretence  of  reason  as 
then,  make  the  act  of  the  Nicene  fathers,  in  strait- 
ening prophesying,  and  enlarging  the  creed,  be- 
come accidentally  an  inconvenience.  The  first 
restraint,  although,  if  it  had  been  complained  of, 
might  possibly  have  been  better  considered  of; 
yet  the  inconvenience  is  not  visible,  till  it  comes  by 
way  of  precedent  to  usher  in  more.  It  is  like  an 
arbitrary  power,  which,  although  by  the  same 
reason  it  take  sixpence  from  the  subject  it  may 
take  a  hundred  pounds,  and  then  a  thousand,  and 
then  all,  yet  so  long  as  it  is  within  the  first  bounds, 
the  inconvenience  is  not  so  great;  but  when  it 
comes  to  be  a  precedent  or  argument  for  more,  then 
the  first  may  justly  be  complained  of,  as  having  in 
it  that  reason  in  the  principle  which  brought  the 
inconvenience  in  the  sequel ;  and  we  have  seen 
very  ill  consequences  from  innocent  beginnings. 

And  the  inconveniences  which  might  possibly 
arise  from  this  precedent,  those  wise  personages 
also  did  foresee ;  and  therefore,  although  they 
took  liberty  in  Nice  to  add  some  articles,  or  at 
least  more  explicitly  to  declare  the  first  creed,  yet 
they  then  would  have  all  the  world  to  rest  upon 
that,  and  go  no  farther,  as  believing  that  to  be 
sufiicient.  St.  Athanasius  declares  their  opi- 
nion :*  "  That  faith,  which  those  fathers  there  con- 
fessed, was  sufficient  for  the  refutation  of  all 
impiety,  and  the  establishment  of  all  faith  in 
Christ  and  true  religion."  And  therefore  there 
was  a  famous  epistle  written  by  Zeno  the  emperor, 
called  the  Emruov,^  or  the  Epistle  of  Reconcilia- 

*  "^H  ytp  zv  Avnrn  7rtp±  t&jv  Trofcipm  katci  nrdt.i  3-s/jt?  y^it^f^z 
ofxoxoryn^iia-dt.  ttio-tic,  iwrttfittui  i^Ti  Trpo;  AVitrpcTrnv  fy.iv  Trmrnc 
d!.<Ti0ttai.c,  o-ua-'VdLo-iv  Si  rug  wa-z^HAg  iv  XpKnai  vna-Tia)-;. — Epist.  ad 
Epict. 

t  Eva<:^.  lib.  iii.  c.  14. 
10 


110  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

tion,  in  which  all  disagreeing  interests  are  en- 
treated to  agree  in  the  Nicene  symbol;  and  a 
promise  made  upon  that  condition,  to  communi- 
cate with  all  other  sects ;  adding,  withal,  that  the 
church  should  never  receive  any  other  symbol  than 
that  which  was  composed  by  the  Nicene  fathers. 
And  however  Honorius  was  condemned  for  a 
Monothelite,  yet,  in  one  of  the  epistles  which  the 
sixth  synod  alleged  against  him  (viz.  the  second), 
he  gave  them  counsel  that  would  have  done  the 
church  as  much  service  as  the  determination  of  the 
article  did;  for  he  advised  them  not  to  be  curious 
in  their  disputings,  nor  dogmatical  in  their  deter- 
minations about  that  question ;  and  because  the 
church  was  not  used  to  dispute  in  that  question,  it 
were  better  to  preserve  the  simplicity  of  faith,  than 
to  ensnare  men's  consciences  by  a  new  article. 
And  when  the  emperor  Constantius  was,  by  his 
faction,  engaged  in  a  contrary  practice,  the  incon  - 
venience  and  unreasonableness  was  so  great,  that  a 
prudent  heathen  observed  and  noted  it  in  this  cha- 
racter of  Constantius,  "  That  he  mixed  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  pure  and  simple  in  itself,  with  a 
weak  and  foolish  superstition,  perplexing  to  exa- 
mine, but  useless  to  contrive ;  and  excited  dis- 
sensions which  were  widely  diffused,  and  which 
were  maintained  with  a  war  of  words,  while  he 
endeavored  to  regulate  every  sacred  rite  by  his 
own  will."^ 

And  yet  men  are  more  led  by  example  than 
either  by  reason  or  by  precept ;  for  in  the  council 
of  Constantinople  one  article,  wholly  new,  was 

*  "  Christianam  religionem  absolutam  et  simplicem  anili 
superstitione  confudit.  In  quascnitanda  perplexius  quam  in 
componenda  p-atius,  excitavit  dissidia  quse  progressa  fusing 
alnit  concertatione  verborum,  diim  rituin  omnein  ad  suum 
trahere  conatur  arbitnura." 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  Ill 

added ;  viz.  "I  believe  one  baptism  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins :"  and  then,  again,  they  were  so 
confident  that  that  confession  of  faith  was  so  ab- 
solutely entire,  and  that  no  man  ever  after  should 
need  to  add  any  thing  to  the  integrity  of  faith, 
that  the  fathers  of  the  council  of  Ephesus  pro- 
nounced anathema  to  all  those  that  should  add 
any  thing  to  the  creed  of  Constantinople.  And 
yet,  for  all  this,  tlie  church  of  Rome,  in  a  synod 
at  Gentilly,  added  the  clause  of  "  Filioque"  to 
the  article  of  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Gliost ; 
and  what  they  have  done  since  all  the  world 
knows.  All  men  were  persuaded  that  it  was  most 
reasonable  the  limits  of  faith  should  be  no  more 
enlarged;  but  yet  they  enlarged  it  themselves, 
and  bound  others  from  doing  it;  like  an  intempe- 
rate father,  who,  because  he  knows  he  does  ill 
himself,  enjoins  temperance  to  his  son  but  con- 
tinues to  be  intemperate  himself. 

But  now,  if  I  should  be  questioned  concerning 
the  symbol  of  Athanasius  (for  we  see  the  Nicene 
symbol  was  the  father  of  many  more,  some  twelve 
or  thirteen  symbols  in  the  space  of  a  hundred 
years),  I  confess  I  cannot  see  that  moderate  sen- 
tence and  gentleness  of  charity  in  his  preface  and 
conclusion,  as  there  was  in  the  Nicene  creed. 
Nothing  there  but  damnation  and  perishing  ever- 
lastingly, unless  the  article  of  the  Trinity  be 
believed,  as  it  is  there,  with  curiosity  and  mi- 
nute particularities,  explained.  Indeed,  Athana- 
sius had  been  soundly  vexed  on  one  side,  and  much 
cried  up  on  the  other ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  so 
much  wonder  for  him  to  be  so  decretory  and  severe 
in  his  censure :  for  nothing  could  more  ascertain 
his  friends  to  him,  and  disrepute  his  enemies,  tiian 
the  belief  of  that  damnatory  appendix ;  but  that 


112  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

does  not  justify  the  thing.  For  the  articles  them- 
selves, I  am  most  heartily  persuaded  of  the  truth 
of  them,  and  yet  I  dare  not  say,  all  that  are  not 
so  are  irrevocably  danmed,  because  without  this 
symbol  the  faith  of  the  apostles'  creed  is  entire, 
and  he  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be 
saved ;  that  is,  he  that  believeth  such  a  belief  as 
is  sufficient  disposition  to  be  baptized,  that  faith 
with  the  sacrament  is  sufficient  for  heaven.  Now 
the  apostles'  creed  does  one ;  why,  therefore,  doth 
not  both  entitle  ns  to  the  promise  ?  Besides  if  it 
were  considered  concerning  Athanasius's  creed, 
how  many  people  understand  it  not,  how  contrary 
to  natural  reason  it  seems,  how  little  the  Scrip- 
ture* says  of  those  curiosities  of  explication,  and 
how  tradition  was  not  clear  on  his  side  for  the  ar- 
ticle itself,  much  less  for  those  forms  and  minutes; 
how  himself  is  put  to  make  an  answer,  and  ex- 
cuse, for  the  fatherst  speaking  in  favor  of  the 
Arians,  at  least  so  seemingly  that  the  Arians  ap- 
pealed to  them  for  trial,  and  the  offer  was  declined, 
and  after  all  this,  that  the  Nicene  creed  itself 
went  not  so  far,  neither  in  article,  nor  anathema, 
nor  explication  ;  it  had  not  been  amiss  if  the  final 
judgment  had  been  left  to  Jesus  Christ,  for  he  is 
appointed  Judge  of  all  the  world,  and  he  shall 
judge  the  people  righteously,  for  he  knows  every 
truth,  the  degree  of  every  necessity,  and  all  ex- 
cuses that  do  lessen  or  take  away  the  nature  or 

*  Vide  Hosium  de  Author.  S.  Scrip,  lib.  iii.  p.  53,  et  Gor- 
don, HuntlcBum.  torn.  i.  controv.  i.  de  Verbo  Dei,  cap.  19. 

t  VideGretser.  et  Tanner.  incoUoq.  Ratisbon.  Eusebium 
fuisse  Arianum  ait  Perron,  lib.  iii.  cap.  2,  contra  Jacobum 
Regem.  Idem  ait  Originem  negasse  Divinitatem  Filii  et 
Spir.  S.  lib.  ii.  c.  7,  de  Euchar.  contra  Duplessis.  _  Idem, 
cap.  5,  observ.  4,  ait,  Irenaura  talia  dixisse  quae  qui  hodie 
diceret,  pro  Ariano  reputaretur.  Vide  etiam  Fisher,  in.  resp. 
ad  9  Quaest.  Jacobi  Reg.  et  Epiphan.  in  Hceres.  65. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  113 

malice  of  a  crime  ;  all  which  I  think  Athanasius, 
though  a  very  good  man,  did  not  know  so  well  as 
to  warrant  such  a  sentence.  And  put  case,  the 
heresy  there  condemned  be  damnable  (as  it  is 
damnable  enough),  yet  a  man  may  maintain  an 
opinion  that  is  in  itself  damnable  and  yet  he,  not 
knowing  it  so,  and  being  invincibly  led  into  it, 
may  go  to  heaven ;  his  opinion  shall  burn  and  him- 
self be  saved.  But,  however,  i  :rad  no  ♦  phiions 
in  Scripture  called  damnable  but  what  are  impious 
in  their  effect  upon  the  life,  or  directly  destruc- 
tive of  the  faith  or  the  body  of  Christianity ;  such 
•of  which  St  Peter  speaks  f  '  bringing  in  damnable 
heresies,  even  denying  the  Lord  that  bought  them, 
these  are  tV:  false  prophets,  who  out  of  covetous- 
ness  make  ;  f^rchandize  of  you  through  cozening 
words.'  Such  as  these  are  truly  heresies,  and 
such  as  these  are  certainly  damnable.  But  be- 
cause there  are  no  degrees  either  of  truth  or 
falsehood,  every  true  proposition  being  alike  true, 
that  an  error  is  more  or  less  damnable,  is  not  told 
us  in  Scripture,  but  is  determined  by  the  man 
and  his  manners,  by  circumstance  and  accidents  ; 
and  therefore  the  censure  in  the  preface  and  end 
are  arguments  of  his  zeal  and  strength  of  his  per- 
suasion ;  but  they  are  extrinsical  and  accidental 
to  the  articles,  and  might  as  well  have  been  spared. 
And  indeed,  to  me  it  seems  very  hard  to  put  un- 
charitableness  into  the  creed,  and  so  to  make  it 
become  as  an  article  of  faith,  though  perhaps  this 
very  thing  was  no  faith  of  Athanasius,t  who,  if  we 
may  believe  Aquinas,  made  this  manifestation  of 
faith,  nonper  modum  symboli,  sed  per  modimi  doc- 
trinas  ;  that  is,  if  I  understood  idm  ri^ht,  not  with 

*  2Pet.  ii.  1. 

t  D.  Tho.  2226.  q.  i.  artic.  1.  ad.  3. 
10* 


114  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

a  purpose  to  impose  it  upon  others,  but  with  confi- 
dence to  declare  his  own  belief;  and  that  it  was 
prescribed  to  others  as  a  creed,  was  the  act  of  the 
bishops  of  Rome ;  so  he  said ;  nay,  possibly  it  was 
none  of  his.  So  said  the  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, Meletius,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  since,  in  his  epistle  to  John  Douza :  '•  We 
do  not  scruple  plainly  to  protest  that  the  creed  is 
falsely  ascribed  to  Athanasius,  which  was  cor- 
rupted by  the  Roman  pontiiis."*  And  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  he  said  true,  because  this  creed 
was  written  originally  in  Latin,  which,  in  all  reason 
Athanasius  did  not,  and  it  was  translated  into 
Greek;  it  being  apparent  that  the  Latin  copy  is 
but  one,  but  the  Greek  is  various,  there  being 
three  editions,  or  translations  rather,  expressed  by 
Genebrard,  lib.  iii.  de  Trinit.  But  in  this  parti- 
cular, who  list  may  better  satisfy  himself  in  a 
disputation  De  Symboli  Jlihanasii,  printed  at 
Wertzburg,  1590,  supposed  to  be  written  by  Ser- 
rarius  or  Clencherus. 

And  yet  I  must  observe,  that  this  symbol  of 
Athanasius,  and  that  other  of  Nice,  offer  not  at 
any  new  articles;  they  only  pretend  to  a  furtlier 
explication  of  the  articles  apostolical ;  which  is  a 
certain  confirmation  that  they  did  not  believe  more 
articles  to  be  of  belief  necessary  to  salvation ;  if 
they  intended  these  further  explications  to  be  as 
necessary  as  the  dogmatical  articles  of  the  apostles' 
creed,  I  know  not  how  to  answer  all  that  may  be 
objected  against  that;  but  the  advantage  that  I 
shall  gather  from  their  not  proceeding  to  new 
matters,  is  laid  out  ready  for  me  in  the  words  of 

*  "  Athanasio  falso  adscriptura  symbolum  cum  pontificiim 
Rom.  appendice  ilia  adulteratum,  luce  lucidius  contesta- 
mur." 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  115 

Atlianasiiis,  saying  of  this  creed,  *"This  is  the 
catholic  faith;"  and  if  his  authority  be  good,  or 
his  saying  true,  or  he  the  author,  then  no  man  can 
say  of  any  other  article,  that  it  is  a  part  of  the 
catholic  faith,  or  that  the  catholic  faith  can  be  en- 
larged beyond  the  contents  of  that  symbol ;  and 
therefore  it  is  a  strange  boldness  in  the  church  of 
Rome,*  first  to  add  twelve  new  articles,  and  then 
to  add  the  appendix  of  Athanasius  to  the  end  of 
them,  "  This  is  the  catholic  faith,  without  which 
no  man  can  be  saved." 

But  so  great  an  example  of  so  excellent  a  man 
liath  been  either  mistaken  or  followed  with  too 
much  greediness;  for  we  see  all  the  world  in 
factions,  all  damning  one  another;  each  party 
<lamned  by  all  the  rest;  and  there  is  no  disagree- 
ing in  opinion  from  any  man  that  is  in  love  with 
his  own  opinion,  but  damnation  presently  to  all 
that  disagree.  A  ceremony  and  a  rite  hath  caused 
several  churches  to  excommunicate  each  other ;  as 
in  the  matter  of  the  Saturday  fast  and  keeping 
Easter.  But  what  the  spirits  of  men  are  when 
they  are  exasperated  in  a  question  and  difference 
of  religion,  as  they  call  it,  though  the  thing  itself 
may  be  most  inconsiderable,  is  very  evident  in 
that  request  of  Pope  Innocent  the  Third,  desiring 
of  the  Greeks  (but  reasonably  a  man  would  think), 
that  they  would  not  so  much  hate  the  Roman 
manner  of  consecrating  in  unleavened  bread,  as 
to  wash  and  scrape,  and  pare  the  altars,  after  a 
Roman  priest  had  consecrated.  Nothing  more 
furious  than  a  mistaken  zeal,  and  the  actions  of  a 
scrupulous  and  abused  conscience.  When  men 
think  every  thing  to  be  their  faith  and  their  reli- 

*  Bulla  Pii  quart!  supra  forraa  juratnenti  professionis  ficlei, 
in  fin.  Cone.  Trident. 


116  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

gion,  commonly  they  are  so  busy  in  trifles  and 
such  impertinences  in  which  the  scene  of  their 
mistake  lies,  that  they  neglect  the  greater  things 
of  the  law,  charity,  and  compliances,  and  the  gen- 
tleness of  Christian  communion  ;  for  this  is  the 
great  principle  of  mischief,  and  yet  is  not  more 
pernicious  than  unreasonable. 

For,  I  demand,  can  any  man  say  and  justify 
that  the  apostles  did  deny  communion  to  any  man 
that  believed  the  apostles'  creed,  and  lived  a  good 
life  ?  And  dare  any  man  tax  that  proceeding  of 
remissness,  and  indilFerency  in  religion?  And 
since  our  blessed  Savior  promised  salvation  to 
him  that  believeth  (and  the  apostles,  when  they 
gave  this  word  the  greatest  extent,  enlarged  it 
beyond  the  borders  of  the  creed),  how  can  any 
man  warrant  the  condemning  of  any  man  to  the 
flames  of  hell,  that  is  ready  to  die  in  attestation 
of  this  faith,  so  expounded  and  made  explicit  by 
the  apostles,  and  lives  accordingly  ?  And  to  this 
purpose  it  was  excellently  said,  by  a  wise  and  a 
pious  prelate,  St.  Hilary,*  "It  is  not  through 
thorny  questions  that  God  invites  us  to  heaven ; 
our  way  to  eternal  life  is  clear  and  easy: — to  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the 
power  of  God,  to  confess  him  to  be  the  Lord,"  &c. 
These  are  the  articles  which  we  must  believe, 
which  are  the  sufficient  and  adequate  object  of 
that  faith  which  is  required  of  us  in  order  to  sal- 
vation. And  therefore  it  was,  that  when  the 
bishops  of  Istria  deserted  the  communion  of  Pope 
Pelagius,  in  causa  trium  capituloruniy^  he  gives 

*  "  Non  per  difficiles  nos  Deus  ad  beatara  vitam  quasstiones 
vocat,  &c.  In  absolute  nobis  et  facili  est  aeternitas ;  Jesum 
suscitatum  a  mortuis  per  Deum  credere,  et  ipsum  esse  Domi- 
num  confiteri,"  &c. — Lib.  x.  De  Trin.  ad  finem. 

t  Concil.  torn.  iv.  edit.  Paris,  p.  473. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  117 

them  an  account  of  his  faith  by  recitation  of  the 
creed,  and  by  attesting  the  four  general  councils, 
and  is  confident  upon  this  that  no  question  or 
suspicion  can  arise  respecting  the  validity  of  his 
faith:  let  the  apostles'  creed,  especially  so  expli- 
cated, be  but  secured,  and  all  faith  is  secured ;  and 
yet  that  explication  too,  was  less  necessary  than 
the  articles  themselves;  for  the  explication  was 
but  accidental,  but  the  articles,  even  before  the 
explication,  were  accounted  a  sufficient  inlet  to 
the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

And  that  there  was  security  enough,  in  the  sim- 
ple believing  the  first  articles,  is  very  certain 
amongst  them,  and  by  their  principles  who  allow 
of  an  implicit  faith  to  serve  most  persons  to  the 
greatest  purposes ;  for  if  the  creed  did  contain  in 
it  the  whole  faith,  and  tliat  other  articles  were  in 
it  implicitly  (for  such  is  the  doctrhie  of  the 
school,  and  particularly  of  Aquinas),  then  he  that 
explicitly  believes  all  the  creed,  does  implicitly 
believe  all  the  articles  contained  in  it ;  and  then 
it  is  better  the  implication  should  still  continue, 
than  that,  by  any  explication  (which  is  simply 
unnecessary),  the  church  should  be  troubled  with 
questions,  and  uncertain  determinations,  and  fac- 
tions enkindled,  and  animosities  set  on  foot,  and 
men's  souls  endangered,  who  before  were  secured 
by  the  explicit  belief  of  all  that  the  apostles  re- 
quired as  necQSsary;  which  belief  also  did  secure 
them  for  all  the  rest,  because  it  implied  the  belief 
of  whatsoever  was  virtually  in  the  first  articles,  if 
such  belief  should  by  chance  be  necessary. 

The  sum  of  this  discourse  is  this ;  if  we  take  an 
estimate  of  the  nature  of  faith  from  the  dictates 
and  promises  evangelical,  and  from  the  practice 
apostolical,  the  nature  of  faith  and  its  integrity 


118  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

consists  in  such  propositions  which  make  the  foun- 
dation of  hope  and  charity,  that  which  is  sufficient 
to  make  us  to  do  honor  to  Christ  and  to  obey  him, 
and  to  encourage  us  in  both ;  and  this  is  completed 
in  the  apostles'  creed.  And  since  contraries  are  of 
the  same  extent,  heresy  is  to  be  judged  by  its  propor- 
tion and  analogy  to  faith,  and  that  is  heresy  only 
which  is  against  faith.  Now,  because  faith  is  not 
only  a  precept  of  doctrines,  but  of  manners  and  holy 
life,  whatsoever  is  either  opposite  to  an  article  of 
creed,  or  teaches  ill  life,  that  is  heresy ;  but  all  those 
propositions  which  are  extrinsical  to  these  two 
considerations,  be  they  true  or  be  they  false,  make 
not  heresy,  nor  the  man  a  heretic ;  and  therefore, 
however  he  may  be  an  erring  person,  yet  he  is  to 
be  used  accordingly,  pitied  and  instructed,  not 
condemned  or  excommunicated :  and  this  is  the 
result  of  the  first  ground,  the  consideration  of  the 
nature  of  faith  and  heresy. 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  119 


SECTION  III. 

Of  the  difficulty  and  uncertainty  of  Arguments  from. 
Scripture,  in  Questions  not  simply  necessary,  not 
literally  determined. 

God,  who  disposes  of  all  things  sweetly,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  and  capacity  of  things  and 
persons,  had  made  those  only  necessary  which  he 
had  taken  care  should  be  sufficiently  propounded 
to  all  persons  of  whom  he  required  the  explicit 
belief.  And  therefore  all  the  articles  of  faith  are 
clearly  and  plainly  set  down  in  Scripture,  and  the 
Gospel  is  not  hid,  excepting  to  them  that  are  lost, 
saith  St.  Paul ;  ^'  for  there  we  find  the  encourage- 
ment to  every  virtue,  and  the  warning  against 
every  vice,"  saith  Damascen  f  and  that  so  mani- 
festly, that  no  man  can  be  ignorant  of  the  founda- 
tion of  faith  without  his  own  apparent  fault.  And 
this  is  acknowledged  by  all  wise  and  good  men ; 
and  is  evident,  besides  the  reasonableness  of  the 
thing,  in  the  testimonies  of  Saints  Austin,t  Jerome,^ 
Chrysostom,§  Fulgentius,[i  Hugo  de  Sancto  Vic- 
tore,TI  Theodoret,**  Lactantius,tt  Theophilus 
AntiochenuSjJt  Aquinas,§§  and  the  latter  school - 

*  IIst!r«?  yxp  ctpiTHg  7rctfiix.x>i<j-iv,  km  x,axlAi  eiTrnTnc  rpovrw  tv 
TJ-VTcLti  iupicTKc/iAiv. — Orthod.  Fidei.  lib.  iv.  c.  18. 
t  Super.  Psal.  88,  et  de  TJtil.  Cred.  c.  6. 
X  Super  Isa.  c.  19,  and  in  Psal.  86. 

§  Homil.  3,  in  Thess.  Ep.  ii.  ||  Serm.  de  Confess. 

IT  Miscel.  ii.  lib.  i.  tit.  46. 
**  In  Gen.  ap  Struch.  p.  87.  ft  Cap.  6. 

\X  Ad  Antioch.  lib.  ii.  p.  918.  §§  Far.  i.  q,  i.  art.  9. 


120  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

men.  And  God  hath  done  more ;  for  many  things 
which  are  only  profitable,  are  also  set  down  so 
plainly,  that,  as  St.  Austin  says,  "every  one  may 
partake,  if  he  come  in  a  devout  and  pious  spirit :"  *^ 
but  of  such  things  there  is  no  question  commenced 
in  Christendom ;  and  if  there  were,  it  cannot  but  be 
a  crime  and  human  interest  that  are  the  authors 
of  such  disputes;  and  therefore  these  cannot  be 
simple  errors,  but  always  heresies,  because  the 
principle  of  them  is  a  personal  sin. 

But  besides  these  things,  which  are  so  plainly 
set  down,  some  for  doctrine,  as  St.  Paul  says,  that 
is  for  articles  and  foundation  of  faith,  some  for  in- 
struction, some  for  reproof,  some  for  comfort,  that 
is,  in  matters  practical  and  speculative  of  several 
tempers  and  constitutions,  there  are  innumerable 
places,  containing  in  them  great  mysteries,  but  yet 
either  so  enwrapped  with  a  cloud,  or  so  darkened 
with  umbrages,  or  heightened  with  expressions,  or 
so  covered  with  allegories  and  garments" of  rhe- 
toric, so  profound  in  the  matter,  or  so  altered  or 
made  intricate  in  the  manner,  in  the  clothing,  and 
in  the  dressing,  that  God  may  seem  to  have  left 
them  as  trials  of  our  industry,  and  arguments  of 
our  imperfections,  and  incentives  to  the  longings 
after  heaven,  and  the  clearest  revelations  of  eter- 
nity, and  as  occasions  and  opportunities  of  our 
mutual  charity  and  toleration  to  each  other,  and 
humility  in  ourselves,  rather  than  the  repositories 
of  faith  and  furniture  of  creeds,  and  articles  of 
belief. 

For  wherever  the  word  of  God  is  kept,  whether 
in  Scripture  alone,  or  also  in  tradition,  he  that 
considers  that  the  meaning  of  the  one,  and  the 

*  "  Nemo  inde  haurire  non  possit,  si  modo  ad  hauriendum 
devote  ac  pie  accedat." — Ubi  supra  de  Util,  Cied.  c.  6. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROrilESYING.  121 

truth  or  certainty  of  the  other,  are  things  of  great 
question,  will  see  a  necessity  in  these  things 
(wliich  are  the  subject  matter  of  most  of  the  ques- 
tions in  Christendom),  that  men  should  hope  to  be 
excused  by  an  implicit  faith  in  God  Almighty. 
For  when  there  are,  in  the  explications  of  Scrip- 
ture, so  many  commentaries,  so  many  senses  and 
interpretations,  so  many  volumes  in  all  ages,  and 
all,  like  men's  faces,  exactly  none  like  another, 
either  this  difference  and  inconvenience  is  abso- 
lutely no  fault  at  all,  or,  if  it  be,  it  is  excusable, 
by  a  mind  prepared  to  consent  in  that  truth  wliich 
God  intended.  And  this  I  call  an  implicit  faith 
in  God,  which  is  certainly  of  as  great  excellency 
as  an  implicit  faith  in  any  man  or  company  of 
men.  Because  they  who  do  require  an  implicit 
faith  in  the  church  for  articles  less  necessary,  and 
excuse  the  want  of  explicit  faith  by  the  implicit, 
do  require  an  implicit  fliith  in  the  church,  because 
they  believe  that  God  hath  required  of  them  to 
have  a  mind  prepared  to  believe  whatever  the 
church  says  ;  which,  because  it  is  a  proposition  of 
no  absolute  certainty,  wdiosoevcr  does,  in  readiness 
of  mind,  believe  all  that  God  spake,  does  also  be- 
lieve that  sufficiently,  if  it  be  fitting  to  be  believed ; 
that  is,  if  it  be  true,  and  if  God  hath  said  so ;  for 
he  hath  the  same  obedience  of  understanding  in 
this  as  in  the  other.  But,  because  it  is  not  so  cer- 
tain God  hath  tied  him  in  all  things  to  believe 
that  which  is  called  the  church,  and  that  it  is  cer- 
tain we  must  believe  God  in  all  things,  and  yet 
neither  know  all  that  either  God  hath  revealed  or 
the  church  taught,  it  is  better  to  take  the  certain 
than  the  uncertain,  to  believe  God  rather  than 
men;  especially  since,  if  God  hath  bound  us  to 
believe  men,  our  absolute  submission  to  God  does 
11 


122  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

involve  that,  and  there  is  no  inconvenience  in  the 
world  this  way,  but  that  we  implicitly  believe  one 
article  more,  viz.  the  church's  authority  or  infalli- 
bility, which  may  well  be  pardoned,  because  it 
secures  our  belief  of  all  the  rest,  and  we  are  sure 
if  we  believe  all  that  God  said  explicitly  or  im- 
plicitly, we  also  believe  the  church  implicitly,  in 
case  we  are  bound  to  it;  but  we  are  not  certain, 
that  if  we  believe  any  company  of  men,  whom  we 
call  the  church,  that  we  therefore  obey  Ood,  and 
believe  what  he  hath  said.  But  however,  if  this 
will  not  help  us,  there  is  no  help  for  us,  but  good 
fortune  or  absolute  predestination;  for  by  choice 
?i,nd  industry  no  man  can  secure  himself,  that  in 
all  the  mysteries  of  religion  taught  in  Scripture 
he  shall  certainly  understand  and  explicitly  be- 
lieve that  sense  that  God  intended.  For  to  this 
purpose  there  are  many  considerations. 

I.  There  are  so  many  thousands  of  copies  that 
w^ere  writ  by  persons  of  several  interests  and  per- 
suasions, such  different  understandings  and  tem- 
pers, such  distinct  abilities  and  weakness,  that  it 
is  no  wonder  there  is  so  great  variety  of  readings 
both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  ilm  New.  In 
the  Old  Testament,  the  Jews  pretend  that  the 
Christians  have  corrupted  many  places,  on  purpose 
to  make  symphony  between  both  the  Testaments. 
On  the  other  side,  the  Christians  have  liad  so  much 
reason  to  suspect  the  Jews,  that  when  Aquilla  had 
translated  the  Bible  in  their  schools,  and  had  been 
taught  by  them,  they  rejected  the  edition,  many 
of  them,  and  .some  of  them  called  it  heresy  to  fol- 
low it.  And  Justin  Martyr  justified  it  to  Tryphon, 
that  the  Jews  had  defalked  many  sayings  from  the 
books  of  the  old  prophets,  and  am-ongst  the  rest  he 
instances  in  that  of  the  Psalm,  Bidteimiationibus 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  123 

quia  Dominus  regnavit  a  ligno.  The  last  words 
they  have  cut  oif,  and  prevailed  so  far  in  it,  that 
to  this  day  none  of  our  Bibles  have  it ;  but  if  they 
ought  not  to  have  it,  then  Justin  Martyr's  Bible 
had  more  in  it  than  it  should  have,  for  there  it 
was ;  so  that  a  fault  there  was,  either  under  or 
over.  But,  however,  there  are  infinite  readings  iu 
the  new  Testament  (for  in  that  I  will  instance); 
some  whole  verses  in  one  that  are  not  in  another; 
and  there  was,  in  some  copies  of  St.  Mark's  Gos- 
pel, in  the  last  chapter,  a  whole  verse,  a  chapter 
it  was  anciently  called,  that  is  not  found  in  our 
Bibles,  as  St.  Jerome  ad  Hedibiam,  q.  S.  notes. 
The  words  he  repeats,  Lib.  ii.  Contra  Polygamos : 
**They  confessed,  saying,  that  it  is  the  essence  of 
iniquity  and  unbelief,  whicli  does  not  allow  the 
true  power  of  God  to  be  apprehended  by  unclean 
spirits ;  therefore  now  display  thy  righteousness."* 
These  words  are  thought  by  some  to  savor  of 
Manicheism;  and,  for  ought  I  can  find,  were 
therefore  rejected  out  of  many  Greek  copies,  and 
at  last  out  of  the  Latin.  Now,  suppose  that  a 
Manichee  in  disputation  should  urge  this  place^ 
having  found  it  in  his  Bible,  if  a  catholic  sliouht 
answer  him  by  saying,  it  is  apocryphal,  and  not 
found  in  divers  Greek  copies,  might  not  the  Mani- 
chee askj,  how  it  came  in,  if  it  was  not  the  word 
of  God,  and  if  it  was,  how  came  it  out  ?  and  at 
last  take  the  same  liberty  of  rejecting  any  other 
authority  which  shall  be  alleged  against  him,  if  he 
can  find  any  copy  that  may  favor  him,  however 
that  favor  be  procured  ?     And  did  not  i\\Q  Ebiu- 

*  "  Etilli  satis faciebantdicentPSjSaecuIumistud  iniquitilla 
et  incredulitatis  substantia  est,  qus  non  sinit  per  jmmundos 
spiritus  verara  Dei  apprehendi  virtutein,  idcirco  jam  nunc 
revela  jus^titiam  tuara." 


124  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

nites  reject  all  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  upon  pre- 
tence he  was  an  enemy  to  the  law  of  Moses  ?  In- 
deed, it  was  boldly  and  most  unreasonably  done; 
but  if  one  title  or  one  chapter  of  St.  Mark  be  called 
apocryphal,  for  being  suspected  of  Manicheism, 
it  is  a  plea  that  will  too  much  justify  others  in 
their  taking  and  choosing  what  they  list.  But  I 
will  not  urge  it  so  far;  but  is  not  there  as  much 
reason  for  the  fierce  Lutherans  to  reject  the  epistle 
of  St.  James,  for  favoring  justification  by  works, 
or  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  upon  pretence  that 
the  sixth  and  tenth  chapters  do  favor  Novatianism ; 
especially,  since  it  was  by  some  famous  churches 
at  first  not  accepted ;  even  by  the  church  of  Rome 
herself?  The  parable  of  tlie  woman  taken  in 
adultery,  which  is  now  in  John  viii,  Eusebius  says, 
was  not  in  any  gospel,  but  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Hebrews;  and  St.  Jerome  makes  it  doubt- 
ful, and  so  does  St.  Chrysostom  and  Euthimius,  the 
first  not  vouchsafing  to  explicate  it  in  his  homilies 
upon  St.  John,  the  other  aflirming  it  not  to  be 
found  in  the  exacter  copies.  I  shall  not  need  to 
urge,  that  there  are  some  words  so  near  in  sound, 
that  the  scribes  might  easily  mistake.  There  is 
one  famous  one  of  serving  the  Lord*  which  yet 
some  copies  read  serving  the  time  ,*t  the  sense  is 
very  unlike,  though  the  words  be  near,  and  there 
needs  some  little  luxation  to  strain  this  latter 
reading  to  a  good  sense.  That  famous  precept  of 
St.  Paul  that  the  women  must  pray  with  a  cover- 
ing on  their  head,  Sia  rou?  rxyyixac,  'because  of  the 
angels,'  hath  brought  into  the  church  an  opinion 
that  angels  are  present  in  churches,  and  are  spec- 
tators of  our  devotion  and  deportment.     Such  an 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  125 

opinion,  if  it  should  meet  with  peevish  opposite& 
on,  one  side,  and  confident  hyperaspists  on  the 
other,  mi^ht  possibly  make  a  sect :  and  here  were 
a  clear  ground  for  the  affirmative ;  and  yet,  wha 
knows  but  that  it  might  have  been  a  mistake  of 
the  transcribers  to  double  the  ^?  for  if  we  read^ 
cT/A  T5T?  ayiKu;,  that  the  sense  be,  '  Women  in  public 
assemblies  must  wear  a  veil,  by  reason  of  com- 
panies of  the  young  men  there  present,'  it  would 
be  no  ill  exchange,  for  the  loss  of  a  letter,  to  make 
so  probable,  so  clear  a  sense  of  the  place.  But 
the,  instances  in  this  kind  are  too  many,  as  appears 
in  the  variety  of  readings  in  several  copies,  pro- 
ceedino;  fron^  the  neo-lio-ence  oi'  i«:norance  of  the 
transcribers,  or  the  malicious  endeavor  of  heretics,* 
or  the  inserting  marginal  notes  into  the  text,  or 
the  nearness  of  several  words.  Ind-eed  there  is  so 
much  evidence  of  tliis  particular,  that  it  hath  en- 
couraged the  servants  of  the  vulgar  translation 
(for  so  some  are  novz-a-days)  to  prefer  that  trans- 
lation before  the  original:  for  altliough  they  have 
attempted  that  proposition  with  very  ill  su-ccess, 
yet  that  they  could  think  it  possible  to  be  proved^ 
is  an  argument  there  is  much  variety  and  altera- 
tions in  divers  texts }  for  if  they  were  not,  it  were 
impudence  to  pretend  a  translation,  and  that  none 
of  the  best,  should  be  better  than  the  original. 
But  so  it  is,  that  this  variety  of  reading  is  not  of 
slight  consideration ;  for  although  it  be  demon- 
strably true,  that  all  things  necessary  to  faith  and 
good  manners  are  preserved  from  alteration  and 
corruption,  because  they  are  of  things  necessary  y 
and  they  could  not  be  necessary,  unless  they  were 

*  Grseci  corruperunt  Novum  Testamentiim  ut  testantur 
Tiirtul.  lib.  V.  adv.  Marcion.  Euseb.  lib.  v.  Hist,  c  ult.  Iren^e. 
lib.  i.  r.  21.  Alln.  H.^res.  Basil,  lb.  ii.  rontr.  Eunomiiim. 
11' 


126  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

delivered  to  us,  God  in  his  goodness  and  his  justice 
having  obliged  himself  to  preserve  that  which  he 
hath  bound  us  to  observe  and  keep ;  yet,  in  other 
things,  which  God  hath  not  obliged  himself  so 
punctually  to  preserve, — in  these  things,  since 
variety  of  reading  is  crept  in,  every  reading  takes 
away  a  degree  of  certainty  from  any  proposition 
derivative  from  those  places  so  read :  and  if  some 
copies  (especially  if  they  be  public  and  notable) 
omit  a  verse  or  title,  every  argument  from  such  a 
title  or  verse  loses  much  of  its  strength  and  repu- 
tation ;  and  we  find  it  in  a  great  instance.  For 
when  in  probation  of  the  mystery  of  the  glorious 
Unity  in  Trinity,  we  allege  that  saying  of  St.  John, 
'  There  arc  three  which  bear  witness  in  heaven, 
the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Spirit,  and  these 
three  arc  one;'  the  anti-trinitarians  think  they 
have  answered  the  argument,  by  saying,  the  Syrian 
translation  and  divers  Greek  copies  have  not  that 
verse  in  them,  and  therefore,  being  of  doubtful 
authority,  cannot  conclude  with  certainty  in  a 
question  of  faith.  And  there  is  an  instance  on 
the  catholic  part :  for  when  the  Arians  urge  the 
saying  of  our  Savior,  'No  man  knows  that  day 
and  hour  (viz.  of  judgment),  no  not  the  Son,  but 
the  Father  only,'  to  prove  that  tlie  Son  knows  not 
all  things,  and  therefore  cannot  be  God,  in  the 
proper  sense ;  St.  Ambrose  thinks  he  hath  an- 
swered the  argument  by  saying  those  words,  '  no 
not  the  Son,'  were  tiirust  into  the  text  by  the 
fraud  of  the  Arians.  So  that  here  we  have  one 
objection,  which  must  first  be  cleared  and  made 
infallible,  before  we  can  be  ascertained  in  any  such 
question  as  to  call  them  heretics  that  dissent. 

II.  I  consider  that  there  are  very  many  senses 
and  designs  of  expounding  Scripture,  and  when 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  127 

the  grammatical  sense  is  found  out,  we  are  many 
times  never  the  nearer ;  it  is  not  that  which  was 
intended ;  for  there  is,  in  very  many  Scriptures,  a 
double  sense,  a  literal  and  a  spiritual  (for  the 
Scripture  is  a  book  written  within  and  without, 
Apoc.  v.),  and  both  these  senses  are  subdivided. 
For  the  literal  sense  is  either  natural  or  figurative ; 
and  the  spiritual  is  sometimes  allegorical,  some- 
times anagogical ;  nay,  sometimes  there  are  divers 
literal  senses  in  the  same  sentence,  as  St.  Austin 
excellently  proves  in  divers  places  ;*  and  it  appears 
in  divers  quotations  in  the  New  Testament,  where 
the  apostles  and  divine  writers  bring  the  same  tes- 
timony to  divers  purposes;  and  particularly  St, 
Paul's  making  that  saying  of  the  Psalm,  '  Thou  art 
my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,'  to  be  an 
argument  of  Christ's  resurrection,  and  a  designa- 
tion or  ordination  to  his  pontificate,  is  an  instance 
\ery  famous  in  his  first  and  fifth  chapter  to  the 
Hebrews.  But  now,  there  being  such  variety  of 
senses  in  Scripture,  and  but  few  places  so  marked 
out,  as  not  to  be  capable  of  divers  senses,  if  men 
will  write  commentaries  as  Herod  made  orations, 
}cArA  TTowDc  <pctvTAcri!tc,  wlth  a  mind  inflated  with 
vanity,  what  infallible  criterion  will  be  left  whereby 
to  judge  of  the  certain  dogmatical  resolute  sense 
of  such  places  which  have  been  the  matter  of 
question  ?  For  put  case,  a  question  were  com- 
menced concerning  the  degrees  of  glory  in  heaven, 
as  there  is  in  the  schools  a  noted  one.  To  show 
an  inequality  of  reward,  Christ's  parable  is 
brought,  of  the  reward  of  ten  cities,  and  of  five, 
according  to  the  divers  improvement  of  the  ta- 
lents:  this  sense  is  mystical,  and  yet  very  proba- 

*  Lib.  xii.  Confess,  cap.  26.    Lib.  ii.  de  Civit.  Dei.  cap.  9. 
Lib.  iii.  de  Doctrina  Christ,  cap.  26. 


128  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS.' 

ble,  and  understood  by  men,  for  aught  I  know,  to 
this  very  sense.     And  the  result  of  the  argument 
is  made  good  by  St.  Paul :  *  As  one  star  differeth 
from  another  in  glory,  so  shall  it  be  in  the  resur- 
rection  of  the    dead.'      Now,   suppose   another 
should  take  the  same  liberty  of  expounding  another 
parable  to  a  mystical  sense  and  interpretation,  as  all 
parables  must  be  expounded ;  then  the  parable  of 
the  laborers  in  the  vineyard,  and  though  differing 
in  labor,  yet  having  an  equal  reward,  to  any  man's 
understanding,  may  seem  very  strongly  to  prove 
the  contrary ;  and  as  if  it  were  of  purpose,  and 
that  it  were  the  main  design  of  the  parable,  the 
lord  of  the  vineyard  determined  the  point  reso- 
lutely, upon  the  mutiny  and  repining  of  them  that 
had  borne  the  burthen  and  heat  of  the   day,  '  I 
will  give  unto  this  last  even  as  to  thee ;'  which  to 
my  sense,  seems  to  determine  the  question  of  de- 
grees ;  they  that  work  but  little,  and  they  that 
work  long,  shall  not  be  distinguished  in  the  re- 
ward though  accidentally  they  were  in  the  work  ; 
and  if  this  opinion  could  but  answer  St.  Paul's 
w^ords,  it  stands  as  fair,  and  perhaps  fairer  than 
the  other.     Now,  if  we  look  v/ell  upon  the  words 
of  St.  Paul,  we  shall  find  he  speaks  nothing  at  all 
of  diversity  of  degrees  of  glory  in  beautified  bo- 
dies, but  the  differences  of  glory  in  bodies  heavenly 
and  earthly : '  There  are,'  says  he, '  bodies  earthly, 
and  there  are  heavenly  bodies :  and  one  is  the 
glory   of  the  earthly,   another  the  glory  of  the 
heavenly;  one  glory  of  the  sun,  another  of  the 
moon,  &c.    So  shall  it  be  in  the  resurrection;  for 
it  is  sown  in  corruption,  it  is  raised  in  incorrup- 
tion.'     Plainly  thus,  our  bodies  in  the  resurrection 
shall  differ  as  much  from  our  bodies  here,  in  the 
state  of  corruption,  as  one  star  does  from  another. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  129 

And  now,  suppose  a  sect  should  be  commenced 
upon  this  question  (upon  lighter  and  vainer  many 
have  been),  either  side  must  resolve  to  answer 
the  other's  arguments,  whether  they  can  or  no, 
and  to  deny  to  each  other  a  liberty  of  expounding 
the  parable  to  such  a  sense,  and  yet  themselves 
must  use  it  or  want  an  argument.     But  men  use 
to  be  unjust  in  their  own  cases ;  and  were  it  not 
better  to  leave  each  other  to  their  liberty,  and 
seek  to  preserve  their  own  charity  ?     For  when 
the  words  are  capable  of  a  mystical  or  a  diverse 
sense  I  know  not  why  men's  liincies  or  under- 
standings should  be  more  bound  to  be  like  one 
another  than  their  faces :  and  either,  in  all  such 
places  of  Scripture,  a  liberty  must  be  indulged  to 
every  honest  and  peaceable  wise  man,  or  else  all 
argument  from  such  places  must  be  wholly  de- 
clined.    Now,  although  I  instanced  in  a  question, 
which  by  good  fortune  never  came  to  open  defi- 
ance, yet  there   liave   been   sects   framed   upon 
lighter  grounds,  more  inconsiderable  questions, 
which  have  been  disputed  on  either  side  with  argu- 
ments less  material  and  less  pertinent.     St.  Aus- 
tin laughed  at  the  Donatists,  for  bringing  that 
saying  of  the  spouse  in  the  Canticles,  to  prove 
their  schism,  'Tell  me  where  thou  feedest,  where 
thou  makest  thy  flock  to  rest  at  noon.'     For  from 
thence  they  concluded,  the  residence  of  the  church 
was  only  in  the  south  part  of  the  world,  only  in 
Africa.*     It  was  but  a  weak  way  of  argument ; 
yet  the  fathers  were  free  enough  to  use  such  me^ 
diums,  to  prove  mysteries  of  great  concernment ; 
but  yet  again,  when  they  speak  either  against  an 
adversary,  or  with  consideration,  they  deny  that 
such  mystical  senses   can  sufficiently  confirm  a 

*  Jerome,  in  Matth.  xi. 


130  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

question  of  faith.  But  I  shall  instance,  in  the 
great  question  of  rebaptization  of  heretics,  which 
many  saints,  and  martyrs,  and  confessors,  and 
divers  councils,  and  almost  all  Asia  and  Africa 
did  once  believe  and  practice.  Their  grounds  for 
the  invalidity  of  the  baptism  by  a  heretic,  were 
such  mystical  words  as  tliese  ;  *  Thou  hast  covered 
my  head  in  the  day  of  battle,'  Ps.  cxl ;  and,  '  He 
that  washeth  himself,  after  touching  a  dead  body, 
if  he  touch  it  again,  what  avail eth  his  washing  ?' 
Ecdes.  xxxiv. ;  and  '  Drink  waters  out  of  thine 
own  cistern,'  Prov.  v. ;  and,  *  We  know  that  God 
lieareth  not  sinners,'  John  ix. ;  and,  "  He  that  is 
not  with  me  is  against  me,'  Luke  xi.  I  am  not 
sure  the  other  part  had  arguments  so  good  ;  for 
the  great  one  of  '  one  faith,  one  baptism,'  did  not 
conclude  it  to  their  understandings  who  were  of 
the  other  opinion,  and  men  famous  in  their  gene- 
rations ;  for  it  was  no  argument  that  they  who 
had  been  baptized  by  John's  baptism  should  not 
be  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  because  '  one 
God,  one  baptism ;'  and  as  it  is  still  one  faith 
which  a  man  confesseth  several  times,  and  one 
sacrament  of  the  eucharist,  though  a  man  often 
communicates ;  so  it  might  be  one  baptism,  though 
often  ministered.  And  the  unity  of  baptism  might 
not  be  derived  from  the  unity  of  tlie  ministration, 
but  from  the  unity  of  the  religion  into  which  they 
are  baptized ;  though  baptized  a  thousand  times, 
yet,  because  it  was  still  in  the  name  of  the  holy 
Trinity,  still  into  the  death  of  Christ,  it  might  be 
•  one  baptism.'  Whether  St.  Cyprian,  Firmilian, 
and  their  colleagues,  had  this  discourse  or  no  (I 
know  not),  I  am  sure  they  might  have  had  much 
better  to  have  evacuated  the  force  of  that  argu- 
ment, although  I  believe  they  had  the  wrong  cause 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  131 

in  hand.  But  this  is  it  that  I  say,  that  when  a 
question  is  so  undetermined  in  Scripture,  that  the 
arguments  rely  only  upon  such  mystical  places 
whence  the  best  fancies  can  draw  the  greatest 
variety,  and  such  which  perhaps  were  never  in- 
tended by  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  were  good  the  rivers 
did  not  swell  higher  than  the  foundation,  and  the 
confidence  higher  than  the  argument  and  evidence : 
for,  in  this  case,  there  could  not  any  thing  be  so 
certainly  proved,  as  that  the  disagreeing  party 
should  deserve  to  be  condemned,  by  a  sentence  of 
excommunication,  for  disbelieving  it;  and  yet 
they  were  ;  which  I  wonder  at  so  much  the  more, 
because  they  who  (as  it  was  since  judged)  had  the 
right  cause,  had  not  any  sufficient  argument  from 
Scripture,  not  so  much  as  such  mystical  arguments, 
but  did  fly  to  the  tradition  of  the  church ;  in  which 
also  I  shall  afterwards  show,  they  had  nothing  that 
was  absolutely  certain. 

III.  I  consider  that  there  are  divers  places  ot 
Scripture,  containing  in  them  mysteries  and  ques- 
tions of  great  concernment ;  and  yet  the  fabric 
and  constitution  is  such,  that  there  is  no  certain 
mark  to  determine  whether  the  sense  of  them 
should  be  literal  or  figurative ;  I  speak  not  liere 
concerning  extrinsical  means  of  determination, 
as  traditivc  interpretation,  councils,  fathers,  popes, 
and  the  like  ;  I  shall  consider  them  afterwards,  in 
their  several  places ;  but  liere  the  subject-matter 
being  concerning  Scripture  in  its  own  capacity, 
I  say  there  is  notliing  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  to 
determine  the  sense  and  meaning,  but  it  must  be 
gotten  out  as  it  can  ;  and  that  therefore  it  is  un- 
reasonable, that  what  of  itself  is  ambiguous  should 
be  understood  in  its  own  prime  sense  and  inten- 
tion, under  the  pain  of  either  a  sin  or  an  anathema ; 


132  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

I  instance,  in  that  famous  place  from  whence  hath 
sprung  that  question  of  transubstantiation,  '  This 
is  my  body.'  The  words  are  plain  and  clear,  apt 
to  be  understood  in  the  literal  sense;  and  yet  this 
sense  is  so  hard  as  it  does  violence  to  reason ;  and 
therefore  it  is  the  question,  whether  or  no  it  be 
not  a  figurative  speech.  But  here,  what  shall  wc 
have  to  determine  it?  What  mean  soever  we 
take,  and  to  wliat  sense  soever  you  will  expound 
it,  you  shall  be  put  to  give  an  account  why  you 
expound  other  places  of  Scripture,  in  the  same 
case,  to  quite  contrary  senses.  For  if  you  ex- 
pound it  literally,  then,  besides  that  it  seems  to 
intrench  upon  the  words  of  our  blessed  Savior, 
'  The  words  tliat  I  speak,  they  are  spirit,  and  they 
are  life,'  that  is,  to  be  spiritually  understood  (and 
it  is  a  miserable  thing  to  see  what  wretched  shifts 
are  used  to  reconcile  the  literal  sense  to  these 
words,  and  yet  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Caper- 
naitical  fancy) ;  but  besides  this,  why  are  not  those 
other  sayings  of  Christ  expounded  literally,  '  I  am 
a  vine,  I  am  the  door,  I  am  a  rock  ?'  Why  do  we 
fly  to  a  figure  in  those  parallel  words,  'This  is 
the  covenant  which  I  make  between  me  and  you  r' 
and  yet  that  covenant  was  but  the  sign  of  the 
covenant;  and  wliy  do  we  lly  to  a  figure  in  a  pre- 
cept as  well  as  in  mystery  and  a  proposition  ?  *  If 
thy  right  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off:'  and  yet  we 
have  figures  enough  to  save  a  limb.  If  it  be  said, 
because  reason  tells  us  these  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pounded according  to  the  letter;  this  will  be  no 
plea  for  them  who  retain  the  literal  exposition  of 
the  other  instance,  against  all  reason,  against  all 
phdosophy,  against  all  sense,  and  against  two  or 
three  sciences.  But  if  you  expound  these  words 
figuratively,   besides    that    you   are    to    contest 


I 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  ISS 

against  a  world  of  prejudices,  you  give  yourself 
the  liberty,  which  if  others  will  use  when  either 
they  have  a  reason  or  a  necessity  so  to  do,  they 
may  }3erhaps  turn  all  into  allegory,  and  so  may 
evacuate  any  precept,  elude  any  argument.  Well, 
so  it  is  that  very  wise  men  have  expounded  things 
allegorically,  when  they  should  have  expounded 
them  literally.*'  So  did  the  famous  Origen,  who, 
as  St.  Jerome  reports  of  him,  turned  paradise  so 
into  an  allegory,  that  he  took  away  quite  the  truth 
of  the  story,  and  not  only  Adam  was  turned  out 
of  the  garden,  but  the  garden  itself  out  of  para- 
dise. Others  expound  things  literally,  when  they 
should  understand  them  in  allegory ;  so  did  the 
ancient  Papias  understand  Christ's  millenary  reign 
upon  earth  (Apocxd.  xx.) ;  and  so  depressed  tlie 
hopes  of  Christianity,  and  their  desires  to  the 
longing  and  expectation  of  temporal  pleasures  and 
satisfactions;  and  he  was  followed  by  Justin 
Martyr,  Irenasus,  TertuUian,  Lactantius,  and  in- 
deed the  whole  church  generally,  till  St.  Austin 
and  St.  Jerome's  time;  who,  first  of  any  whose 
works  are  extant,  did  reprove  the  error.  If  such 
great  spirits  be  deceived,  in  finding  out  what  kind 
of  senses  be  to  be  given  to  Scriptures,  it  may  well 
be  endured  that  sve,  who  sit  at  their  feet,  may  also 
tread  in  the  steps  of  them  whose  feet  could  not 
always  tread  aright. 

IV.  I  consider  that  there  are  some  places  of 
Scripture  that  have  the  self-same  expressions,  the 
same  preceptive  words,  the  same  reason  and  ac- 

*  Sic  St.  Hicrom.  "  In  adolescentia  provocatus  ardore  et 
studio  Scripturarum  allegorice  interpretatus  sum  Abdiam 
prophetam,  cujus  historiam  nesciebam."  De  Sensu  AIIp- 
goiico  S,  Script,  dixit  Basilius,  'n?  niKofx-^iuf^ivav  fxiv  tov  Koycv 
uTTcS'i'xpi-^i^^,  oiK)i^>i  Si  iivj-i  ov  TTctvu  S^uKTccfxiv . — Lib.  xxil.  de 
Civit.  Dei.  c.  7.  Prcefat.  lib.  xix.  in  Lsai,  et  in  c.  36.  Ezek. 
1 AJ 


134  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

count,  in  all  appearance,  and  yet  either  must  be 
expounded  to  quite  different  senses,  or  else  we 
must  renounce  the  communion,  and  the  charities 
of  a  great  part  of  Christendom.  And  yet  there  is 
absolutely  nothing  in  the  thing,  or  in  its  circum- 
stances, or  in  its  adjuncts  that  can  determine  it 
to  different  purposes.  I  instance  in  those  great 
exclusive  negatives  for  the  necessity  of  both  sa- 
craments: *  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water,  &c. 

*  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man,  ye 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  Now, 
then,  the  first  is  urged  for  the  absolute,  indispen- 
sible  necessity  of  baptism,  even  in  infants;  inso- 
much that  infants  go  to  part  of  hell  if  (inculpably 
both  on  their  own  and  their  parents'  part)  tliey 
miss  of  baptism ;  for  that  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  which  they  learnt  from  St.  Aus- 
tin:  and  others  also  do,  from  hence,  baptize  in- 
fants, though  with  a  less  opinion  of  its  absolute 
necessity.  And  jet  the  same  manner  of  precept, 
in  the  same  form  of  words,  in  the  same  manner  of 
threatening,  by  an  exclusive  negative,  shall  not 
enjoin  us  to  communicate  infants,  though  damna- 
tion (at  least  in  form  of  words)  be  exactly,  and  in 
every  particular,  alike  appendant  to  the  neglect 
of  holy  baptism  and  the  venerable  eucharist.     If 

*  except  ye  be  born  again,'  shall  conclude  against 
the  anabaptist  for  necessity  of  baptizing  infants, 
(as  sure  enough  we  say  it  does),  why  shall  not  an 
equal,  *  except  ye  eat,'  bring  infants  to  the  holy 
communion  ?  The  primitive  church,  for  some 
two  whole  ages,  did  follow  their  own  principles, 
wherever  they  led  them;  and  seeing  that  upon 
the  same  ground  equal  results  must  follow,  they 
did  communicate  infants  as  soon  as  they  had  bap- 
tized them.     And  whv  tlie  church  of  Konie  should 


I 


THE    LIBEKTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  135 

nnfc  do  SO  too,  being  she  expounds,  '  except  je  eat,' 
of  oral  manducation,  I  cannot  yet  learn  a  reason. 
And,  for  others  that  expound  it  of  a  spiritual  man- 
ducation, why  they  shall  not  allow  the  disagreeing 
part  the  same  liberty  of  expounding  *  except  a  man 
be  born  again,'  too,  I  by  no  means  can  understand. 
And  in  these  cases  no  external  determiner  can  be 
pretended  in  answer :  for  whatsoever  is  extrinsi- 
cal to  the  words,  as  councils,  tradition,  church 
authority,  and  fathers,  either  have  said  nothing  at 
all,  or  have  concluded,  by  their  practice,  contrary 
to  the  present  opinion ;  as  is  plain  in  their  com- 
municating infants  by  virtue  of  *  except  ye  eat.' 

V.  I  shall  not  need  to  urge  the  mysteriousness 
of  some  points  in  Scripture,  which,  from  the 
nature  of  the  subject,  are  hard  to  be  understood, 
though  very  plainly  represented:  for  there  are 
some  mysteries  in  divinity,*  which  are  only  to 
be  understood  by  persons  very  holy  and  spiritual, 
which  are  rather  to  be  felt  than  discoursed  of; 
and  therefore,  if  peradventure  they  be  offered  to 
public  consideration,  they  will  therefore  be  op- 
posed, because  they  run  the  same  fortune  with 
many  other  questions ;  that  is,  not  to  be  understood ; 
and  so  much  the  rather,  because  their  understand- 
ing, that  is,  the  feeling  such  secrets  of  the  king- 
dom, are  not  the  results  of  logic  and  philosophy, 
or  yet  of  public  revelation,  but  of  the  public  spirit 
privately  working,  and  in  no  man  is  a  duty,  but 
in  all  that  have  it,  is  a  reward;  and  is  not  neces- 
sary for  all,  but  given  to  some;  producing  its 
operations,  not  regularly,  but  upon  occasions, 
personal  necessities,  and  new  emergencies.  Of 
this  nature  are  the  spirit  of  obsignation,  belief  of 
particular  salvation,  special  influences  and  com- 
*  Secreta  Theologiae. 


136  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

forts,  coming  from  a  sense  of  the  spirit  of  adoption, 
actual  fervors  and  great  compiacencics  in  devotion, 
spiritual  joys,  which  are  little  drawings  aside  of 
the  curtains  of  peace  and  eternity,  and  antepasts 
of  immortality.  But  the  not  understanding  the 
perfect  constitution  and  temper  of  these  mysteries 
(and  it  is  hard  for  any  man  so  to  understand  as  to 
make  others  do  so  too  that  feel  them  not),  is  cause 
that  in  many  questions  of  secret  theology,  by  being 
very  apt  and  easy  to  be  mistaken,  there  is  a  ne- 
cessity in  forbearing  one  anotlier ;  and  this  con- 
sideration would  have  been  of  good  use  in  the 
question  between  Soto  and  Catharinus,  both  for 
the  preservation  of  their  charity  and  explication 
of  the  mystery. 

VI.  But  here  it  will  not  be  unseasonable  to 
consider,  tliat  all  systems  and  principles  of  science 
are  expressed  so,  that  either  by  reason  of  the  uni- 
versality of  the  terms  and  subject-matter,  or  the 
infinite  variety  of  human  understandings,  and 
these  peradventure  swayed  by  interest,  or  deter- 
mined by  things  accidental  and  extrinsical,  they 
seem  to  divers  men,  nay  to  the  same  men  upon 
divers  occasions,  to  speak  things  extremely  dis- 
parate, and  sometimes  contrary,  but  very  often 
of  great  variety.  And  this  very  thing  happens 
also  in  Scripture,  that  if  it  were  not  in  a  sacred 
subject,  it  were  excellent  sport  to  observe,  how 
the  same  place  of  Scripture  serves  several  turns 
upon  occasion,  and  they  at  that  time  believe  the 
words  sound  nothing  else ;  whereas,  in  the  liberty 
of  their  judgment  and  abstracting  from  that  occa- 
sion, their  commentaries  understand  them  wholly 
to  a  differing  sense.  It  is  a  wonder  of  what  ex- 
cellent use  to  the  church  of  Rome,  is  tibi  dabo 
chives,  *  I  will  give  thee  the  keys.'    It  was  spoken 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  137 

to  Peter  and  none  else  (sometimes),  and  there- 
fore it  concerns  him  and  his  successors  only ;  the 
rest  are  to  derive  from  him.  And  yet,  if  you 
question  them  for  their  sacrament  of  penance,  and 
priestly  absolution,  then  '  I  will  give  thee  the  keys' 
comes  in,  and  that  was  spoken  to  St.  Peter,  and  in 
liim  to  the  whole  college  of  the  apostles,  and  in 
them  to  the  whole  hierarchy.  If  you  question 
why  the  pope  pretends  to  free  souls  from  purga- 
tory, *I  will  give  tliee  the  keys'  is  his  warrant; 
but  if  you  tell  him,  the  keys  are  only  for  binding 
and  loosing  on  earth  directly,  and  in  heaven  con- 
sequently; and  that  purgatory  is  a  part  of  hell, 
or  I'ather  neither  earth,  nor  heaven,  nor  hell,  and 
so  the  keys  seem  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it, 
then  his  commission  is  to  be  enlarged  by  a  sup- 
pletory  of  reason  and  consequences,  and  his  keys 
shall  unlock  his  difficulty ;  for  it  is  the  key  of 
knowledge,  as  well  as  of  authority.  And  these 
keys  shall  enable  him  to  expound  Scriptures  iji- 
fallibly,  to  determine  questions,  to  preside  in 
councils,  to  dictate  to  all  the  world  magisterially, 
to  rule  the  church,  to  dispense  with  oaths,  to  ab- 
rogate laws:  and  if  his  key  of  knowledge  will 
not,  the  key  of  authority  shall,  and  '  I  will  give 
thee  the  keys'  shall  answer  for  all.  We  have  an 
instance  in  the  single  fancy  of  one  man,  what  rare 
variety  of  matter  is  afforded  from  those  plain 
\vords,  '  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  Peter,'  Lukey 
xxii. ;  for  that  place,  says  Bellarmine,*  is  other-, 
wise  to  be  understood  of  Peter,  otherwise  of  the 
popes,  and  otherwise  of  tlie  church  of  Rome  :  and 
'  for  thee'  signifies,  that  Christ  prayed  that  Peter 
might  neither  err  personally  nor  judicially ;  and 
that  Peter's  successors,  if  they  did  err  personally, 
*  Bellar.  lib.  iv.  da  Pontif,  c.  3,  §  Respondeo  primo. 
12^ 


138  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

might  not  err  judicialiy;  and  that  the  Roman 
church  might  not  err  personally.  All  this  variety 
of  senses  is  pretended,  by  the  fancy  of  one  man, 
to  be  in  a  few  words  which  are  as  plain  and  sim- 
ple as  are  any  words  in  Scripture.  And  what 
then  in  those  thousands  that  are  intricate  ?  So  is 
done  with  *  Feed  my  sheep,'  which  a  man  would 
think  were  a  commission  as  innocent  and  guiltless 
of  designs,  as  the  sheep  in  the  folds  are.  But  if 
it  be  asked,  why  the  bishop  of  Rome  calls  himself 
universal  bishop,  *  Feed  my  sheep'  is  his  warrant. 
Why  he  pretends  to  a  power  of  deposing  princes, 

*  Feed  my  sheep,'  said  Christ  to  Peter,  the  second 
time.  If  it  be  demanded,  why  also  he  pretends 
to  a  power  of  authorizing  his  subjects  to  kill  him, 

*  Feed  my  lambs,'  said  Christ,  the  third  time :  and 
'  feed'  (pasce)  is  teach,  and  '  feed'  is  command,  and 

*  feed'  is  Jcill.  Now  if  others  should  take  the  same 
(unreasonableness  I  will  not  say,  but  the  same) 
liberty  in  expounding  Scripture,  or  if  it  be  not 
licence  taken,  but  that  the  Scripture  itself  is  so 
full  and  redundant  in  senses  quite  contrary,  what 
man  soever,  or  what  company  of  men  soever  shall 
use  this  principle,  will  certainly  find  such  rare 
productions  from  several  places,  that  either  the 
unreasonableness  of  the  thing  will  discover  the 
error  of  the  proceeding,  or  else  there  will  be  a 
necessity  of  permitting  a  great  liberty  of  judg- 
ment, where  is  so  infinite  variety  without  limit 
or  mark  of  necessary  determination.  If  the  first, 
then,  because  an  error  is  so  obvious  and  ready  to 
ourselves,  it  will  be  great  imprudence  or  tyranny 
to  be  hasty  in  judging  others ;  but  if  the  latter, 
it  is  that  I  contend  for:  for  it  is  most  unreasonable, 
when  either  the  thing  itself  ministers  variety, 
or  that  we  take  licence  to  ourselves  in  variety  of 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  139 

interpretations,  or  proclaim  to  all  the  world  our 
great  weakness,  by  our  actually  being  deceived, 
that  we  should  either  prescribe  to  others  magiste- 
rially, when  we  are  in  error,  or  limit  their  under- 
standings, when  the  thing  itself  affords  liberty 
and  variety. 


140  THE    SACRED   CLASSICS. 

SECTION  IV. 

Of  the  Difficulty  of  Expounding  Scripture. 

These  considerations  are  taken  from  the  nature 
of  Scripture  itself;  but  then,  if  we  consider  tliat 
we  have' no  certain  ways  of  determining  places 
of  difficulty  and  question,  infallibly  and  certainly ; 
but  that  we  must  hope  to  be  saved  in  the  belief  of 
things  plain,  necessary,  and  fundamental,  and  uur 
pious  endeavor  to  find  out  God's  meaning-  in  such 
places,  which  he  .hath  left  under  a  cloud,  for  other 
great  ends  reserved  to  his  own  knowledge,  we 
shall  see  a  very  great  necessity  in  allowing-  a 
liberty  in  prophesying,  without  prescribing  autho- 
ritatively to  other  men's  consciences,  and  becom- 
ing lords  and  masters  of  their  faith.  Now  the 
means  of  expounding  Scripture  are  either  exter- 
nal, or  internal.  For  the  external,  as  church- 
authority,  tradition,  fathers,  councils,  and  decrees 
of  bishops,  they  are  of  a  distinct  consideration, 
and  follow  after  in  their  order.  But  here  we  will 
fiirst  consider  the  invalidity  and  uncertainty  of  all 
those  means  of  expounding  Scripture,  which  are 
more  proper  and  internal  to  the  nature  of  the 
thing.  The  great  masters  of  commentaries,  some 
whereof  have  undertaken  to  know  all  mysteries, 
have  propounded  many  ways  to  expound  Scrip- 
ture ;  which  indeed  are  excellent  helps,  but  not 
infallible  assistances,  both  because  themselves  are 
but  moral  instruments,  which  force  not  truth  from 
concealment,  as  also  because  they  are  not  infalli- 
bly used  and  applied.     1.  Sometime  the  sense  is 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  141 

drawn  forth  by  the  context  and  connexion  of 
parts :  it  is  well  when  it  can  be  so.  But  when 
there  is  two  or  three  antecedents,  and  subjects 
spoken  of,  what  man  or  what  rule  shall  ascertain 
me,  that  I  make  mj  reference  true,  by  drawing 
the  relation  to  such  an  antecedent,  to  which  I 
have  a  mind  to  apply  it,  another  hath  not  ?  For 
in  a  contexture  where  one  part  does  not  always 
depend  upon  another,  where  things  of  differing 
natures  intervene  and  interrupt  the  first  inten- 
tions, there  it  is  not  always  very  probable  to 
expound  Scripture,  to  take  its  meaning  by  its 
proportion  to  the  neighboring  words.  But  who 
desires  satisfaction  in  this,  may  read  the  observation 
verified  in  S.  Gregory's  Morals  upon  Job,  lib.  v. 
c.  29,  and  the  instances  he  there  brings  are  excel- 
lent proof,  that  this  way  of  interpretation  does 
not  warrant  any  man  to  impose  his  expositions 
upon  the  belief  and  understanding  of  other  men 
too  confidently  and  magisterially. 

2.  Another  great  pretence  of  medium  is  the 
conference  of  places,  which  lUyricus  calls  "a 
mighty  remedy,  and  a  very  happy  exposition  of 
holy  Scripture  ;"*  and  indeed  so  it  is,  if  well  and 
temperately  used ;  but  then  we  arc  beholding  to 
them  that  do  so,  for  there  is  no  rule  that  can  con- 
strain them  to  it ;  for  comparing  of  places  is  of 
so  indefinite  capacity,  that  if  there  be  ambiguity 
of  words,  variety  of  sense,  alteration  of  circum- 
stances, or  difference  of  style  amongst  divine 
writers,  then  there  is  nothing  that  may  be  more 
abused  by  willful  people,  or  may  more  easily  de- 
ceive the  unwary,  or  that  may  amuse  the  most 
intelligent  observer.     The  anabaptists  take  ad- 

*  "  Ingens  remedium  et  felicissimam  expositionem  sanctae 
Scripturae." 


142  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

vantage  enough  in  this  proceeding  (and  indeed 
so  may  any  one  that  list),  and  when  we  pretend 
against  them  the  necessity  of  baptizing  all,  by 
authority  of  '  unless  a  man  be  born  of  water  and 
of  the  Spiritn'  they  have  a  parallel  for  it,  and  tell 
us,  that  Christ  will  '  baptize  us  witli  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire,'  and  that  one  place  expounds 
the  otiier;  and  because  by  fire  is  not  meant  an 
element,  or  any  thing  that  is  natural,  but  an  alle- 
gory and  figurative  expression  of  the  same  thing, 
so  also  by  water  may  be  meant  the  figure  signify- 
ing the  effect  or  manner  of  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Fire  in  one  place,  and  wa.ter  in  the  other, 
do  but  represent  to  us,  that  Christ's  baptism  is 
nothing  else  but  the  cleansing  and  purifying  us  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  But  that  which  I  hero  note  as 
of  greatest  concernment,  and  which,  in  all  reason, 
ought  to  be  an  utter  overthrow  to  this  topic,  is  an 
universal  abuse  of  it  among  those  that  use  it 
most ;  and  wlien  two  places  seem  to  have  the 
same  expression,  or  if  a  word  have  a  double  sig- 
nification, because  in  this  place  it  may  have  such 
a  sense,  therefore  it  must ;  because  in  one  of  the 
places  the  sense  is  to  their  purpose,  they  conclude 
that  therefore  it  must  be  so  in  the  other  too.  An 
instance  I  give  in  the  great  question  between  the 
Socinians  and  the  Catholics.  If  any  place  be 
urged,  in  which  our  blessed  Savior  is  called  God, 
they  show  you  two  or  three  where  the  word  God 
is  taken  in  a  depressed  sense,  for  one  like  God ; 
as  when  God  said  to  Moses, '  I  have  made  thee  a 
god  to  Pharoah  ;'  and  hence  they  argue,  because  I 
can  show  the  word  is  used  for  a  false  god,  there- 
fore no  argument  is  sufiicient  to  prove  Christ  to 
be  true  God,  from  the  appellative  of  God.  And 
miglit  not  another  argue  to  the  exact  contrary, 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  143 

and  as  well  urge  that  Moses  is  the  true  God;  be- 
cause in  some  places  the  word  God  is  used  lor 
the  eternal  God?  Both  ways  the  argument  con- 
cludes impiously  and  unreasonably.  It  is  a  fal- 
lacy to  conclude  affirmatively  from  a  possibility 
to  a  reality ;  because  breaking  of  bread  is  some- 
times used  for  an  eucharistical  manducation  in 
Scripture,  therefore  I  shall  not,  from  any  testi- 
mony of  Scripture  affirming  the  first  Christians 
to  have  broken  bread  together,  conclude  that  they 
lived  hospitably  and  in  common  society.  Because 
it  may  possibly  be  eluded,  therefore  it  does  not 
signify  any  thing.  And  this  is  the  great  way  of 
answering  all  the  arguments  that  can  be  brouglit 
against  any  thing  that  any  man  hath  a  mind  to 
defend ;  and  any  man  that  reads  any  controvei'- 
sies  of  any  side,  shall  find  as  many  instances  of 
this  vanity,  almost,  as  he  finds  arguments  from 
Scripture:  this  fault  was  of  old  noted  by  St.  Aus- 
tin, for  then  they  had  got  the  trick,  and  he  is  an- 
gry at  it  :*  '•  We  ought  not,"  says  he,  "  to  take  it 
for  granted,  that  because,  in  a  particular  place,  a 
thing  has  a  certain  signification,  it  always  signifies 
the  same.'' 

3.  Oftentimes  Scriptures  are  pretended  to  be  ex- 
pounded by  a  proportion  and  analogy  of  reason; 
and  this  is  as  the  other,  if  it  be  well,  it  is  well. 
But  unless  there  were  some  universal  intellect, 
furnished  with  infallible  propositions,  by  referring 
to  which  every  man  might  argue  infallibly,  this  logic 
may  deceive  as  well  as  any  of  the  rest.  For  it  is 
with  reason  as  with  men's  tastes ;  although  tliere 

*  "Neque  enim  putare  debeinus  esse  prrescriptum,  ntquod 
in  aliquo  loco  res  aliqua  per  sifnilitudinern  significaverit,  hoc 
etiam  semper  significare  credamus." — De  Doclri.  Chri^iiau. 
lib.  iii. 


144  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

are  some  general  principles  which  are  reasonable 
to  all  men,  yet  every  man  is  not  able  to  draw  out 
all  its  consequences,  nor  to  understand  them  when 
they  are  drawn  forth,  nor  to  believe  when  he  does 
understand  them.  There  is  a  precept  of  St.  Paul, 
directed  to  the  Thessalonians,  before  they  were 
gathered  into  a  body  of  a  church,  2  Tlies.  iii.  G, 
'  To  withdraw  from  every  brother  that  walketh 
disorderly:'  but  if  this  precept  were  now  observed, 
I  would  fain  know  whether  we  should  not  fall  into 
that  inconvenience  which  St.  Paul  sought  to  avoid, 
in  giving  the  same  commandment  to  the  church 
of  Corinth,  1  Cor.  v.  9:  'I  wrote  to  you,  that  ye 
should  not  company  with  fornicators;'  and,  'yet 
not  altogether  with  the  fornicators  of  this  world, 
for  then  ye  must  go  out  of  the  world :'  and  there- 
fore he  restrains  it  to  a  quitting  the  society  of 
Christians  livin";  ill  lives.  But  now  that  all  the 
world  hath  been  Christians,  if  we  should  sin  in 
keeping  company  with  vicious  Christians,  must 
we  not  also  go  out  of  this  world  ?  Is  not  the  pre- 
cept made  null,  because  the  reason  is  altered,  and 
things  are  come  about,  and  that  the  '  many,'  oi  rnxxoi, 
are  the  brethren,  o/s^^o/  cvo^A'i^oiJ.ivot, '  called  brethren,' 
as  St.  Paul's  phrase  is?  And  yet  either  this 
never  was  considered,  or  not  yet  believed  ;  for  it 
is  generally  taken  to  be  obligatory,  though  (I 
think)  seldom  practised.  But  when  we  come  to 
expound  Scriptures  to  a  certain  sense,  by  argu- 
ments drawn  from  prudential  motives,  then  we 
are  in  a  vast  plain  without  any  sufficient  guide, 
and  we  shall  have  so  many  senses  as  there  are 
human  prudences.  But  that  which  goes  further 
than  this  is  a  parity  of  reason,  from  a  plain  place 
of  Scripture  to  an  obscure,  from  that  which  is 
plainly  set  down  in  a  text  to  another  that  is  more 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPkESYING.  145 

remote  from  it.     And  thus  is  that  place  in  St. 
Matthew  forced  :   '  If  thy   brother  refuse  to  be 
amended,  tell  it  to  the  church.'     Hence  some  of 
the  Roman  doctors  argue,  if  Christ  commands  to 
tell  the  church,  in  case  of  adultery  or  private  in- 
jury, then  much  more  in  case  of  heresy.     Well, 
suppose  this  to  be  a  good  interpretation,  why  must 
I  stay  here  ?     Why  may  not  I  also  add,  by  a  pa- 
rity of  reason,  if  the  church  must  be  told'  of 
heresy,  much  more  of  treason :   and   wiiy  may 
not  I  reduce  all  sins  to  the  cognizance  of  a  church 
tribunal,  as  some  men  do  indirectly,  and  Snecanus 
does  heartily  and  plainly  ?     If  a  man's  principles 
be  good,  and  his  deductions  certain,  he  need  not 
care  wiiither  they  carry  him.     But  when  an  autho- 
rity is  entrusted  to  a  person,  and  the  extent  of  his 
power  expressed  in  his  commission,  it  will  not  be 
safety  to  meddle  beyond  his  commission  upon  con- 
iideiice  of  a  parity  of  reason.      To  instance  once 
more :  when  Christ,  in  '  feed  my  sheep,'  and  -thou 
art   Peter,'   gave  power  to  the    pope  to   govern 
thie  church  (for  to  that  sense  the  church  of  Rome 
expounds  those  authorities),  by  a  certain  conse- 
quence of  reason,  say  they,  he  gave  all   things 
necessary  for  exercise  of  this  jurisdiction;  and 
therefore,, in  'feed  my  sheep,'  he  gave  him  an 
indirect  power  over  temporals,  for  that  is  neces- 
sary that  he  may  do  his  duty.     Well,  havins;  gone 
thus  far,  we  will  go  further  upon  the  parity  of 
reason ;  therefore  he  hath  given  the  pope  the  gift 
of  tongues,  and  he  hath  given  him  power  to  give 
it;  for  how  else  shall  Xavier  convert  the  Indians  ? 
He  hath  given  him  also  power  to  command  the 
seas  and  the  winds,  that  they  should  obey  him, 
for  this  also  is  very  necessary  in  some  cases :— and 
so  '  feed  my  sheep'  is  *  receive  the  gift  of  tongues, 
13 


146  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

command  the  seas  and  the  winds,  dispose  of  the 
diadems  of  princes,  and  the  possessions  of  the 
people,  and  the  influences  of  heaven  too,'  and 
whatsoever  the  parity  of  reason  will  judge  equally 
necessary  in  order  to  feed  Christ's  sheep.  When 
a  man  does  speak  reason,  it  is  but  reason  he  should 
be  heard  ;  but  though  he  may  have  the  good  for- 
tune, or  the  great  abilities  to  do  it,  yet  he  hath 
not  a  certainty,  no  regular  infallible  assistance, 
no  inspiration  of  arguments  and  deductions;  and 
if  he  had,  yet  because  it  must  be  reason  tliat  must 
judge  of  reason,  unless  other  men's  understand- 
ings were  of  the  same  area,  the  same  constitution 
and  ability,  they  cannot  be  prescribed  unto  by 
another  man's  reason  ;  especially  because  such 
reasonings  as  usually  are  in  explication  of  parti- 
cular places  of  Scripture  depend  upon  minute 
circumstances  and  particularities,  in  which  it  is 
so  easy  to  be  deceived,  and  so  hard  to  speak 
reason  regularly  and  always,  that  it  is  the  greater 
wonder  if  we  be  not  deceived. 

4.  Others  pretend  to  expound  Scripture  by  the 
analogy  of  faith,  and  that  is  the  most  sure  and 
infallible  way  (as  it  is  thought);  but  upon  stricter 
survey,  it  is  but  a  chimera,  a  thing  in  nubibus^  in 
the  clouds,  which  varies  like  the  right  hand  and 
left  hand  of  a  pillar ;  and,  at  the  best,  is  but  like 
the  coast  of  a  country  to  a  traveler  out  of  his 
way;  it  may  bring  him  to  his  journey's  end, 
though  twenty  miles  about;  it  may  keep  him  from 
running  into  the  sea,  and  from  mistaking  a  river 
for  dry  land;  but  whether  this  little  path  or  the 
other  be  the  right  way,  it  tells  not.  So  is  the 
analogy  of  faith  ;  that  is,  if  I  understand  it  right, 
the  rule  of  faith  ;  that  is,  the  creed.  Now,  were 
it  not  a  fine   device   to  go  to  expound  all  the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  147 

Scripture  by  the  creed,  there  being  in  it  so  many 
thousand  places  which  have  no  more  relation  to 
any  article  in  the  creed  than  they  have  to  Virg-il's 
Eclogues  ?  Indeed,  if  a  man  resolves  to  keep 
the  analogy  of  faith,  that  is,  to  expound  Scripture 
so  as  not  to  do  any  violence  to  any  fundamental 
article,  he  shall  be  sure,  however  he  errs,  yet  not 
to  destroy  faith,  he  shall  not  perish  in  his  exposi- 
tion. And  that  w^as  the  precept  given  by  St. 
Paul,  that  all  prophesyings  should  be  estimated 
according  to  the  analogy  of  faith.  Rom.  xii.  6. 
And  to  this  very  purpose  St.  Austin,  in  his  Expo- 
sition of  Genesis,  by  way  of  preface,  sets  down 
the  articles  of  faith,  with  this  design  and  protesta- 
tion of  it,  that  if  he  says  nothing  against  those 
articles,  though  he  miss  the  particular  sense  of  the 
place,  there  is  no  danger  or  sin  in  his  exposition  : 
but  hov/  that  analogy  of  faith  should  have  any 
other  influence  in  expounding  such  places  in 
which  those  articles  of  faith  are  neither  expressed 
nor  involved,  I  understand  not.  But  then,  if  you 
extend  tlie  analogy  of  faith  further  than  that 
which  is  proper  to  the  rule  or  symbol  of  faith, 
then  every  man  expounds  Scripture  according  to 
the  analogy  of  faith :  but  what  t  his  own  faith : 
which  faith,  if  it  be  questioned,  I  am  no  more 
bound  to  expound  according  to  the  analogy  of 
another  man's  faith,  than  he  to  expound  according 
to  the  analogy  of  mine.  And  this  is  it  that  is 
complained  of  on  all  sides  that  overvalue  their 
own  opinions.  Scripture  seems  so  clearly  to 
speak  what  they  believe,  tliat  they  wonder  all  the 
world  does  not  see  it  as  clear  as  they  do;  but 
they  satisfy  themselves  witii  saying,  that  it  is 
because  they  come  with  prejudice ;  wiiereas,  if 
they  had  the  true  belief,  that  is,  tlieirs,  they  would 


148  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

easily  see  what  thej  sec.  And  this  is  very  true  ; 
for  if  they  did  believe  as  others  believe,  they 
would  expound  Scriptures  to  their  sense ;  but  if 
this  be  expounding-  according  to  the  analogy  of 
faithj  it  signifies  no  more  than  this :  be  you  of 
my  mind,  and  then  my  arguments  will  seem  con- 
cluding, and  my  authorities  and  allegations  pressing 
and  pertinent :  and  this  will  serve  on  all  sides,  and 
therefore  will  do  but  little  service  to  the  determi- 
nation of  questions,  or  prescribing  to  other  men's 
consciences,  on  any  side. 

Lastly;  Consulting  the  originals  is  thought  a 
great  matter  to  interpretation  of  Scriptures.  But 
this  is  to  small  purpose :  for  indeed  it  will  ex- 
pound the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek,  and  rectify 
translations :  but  I  know  no  man  that  says  that 
the  Scriptures  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  are  easy  and 
certain  to  be  understood,  and  that  they  are  hard 
in  Latin  and  English ;  the  difficulty  is  in  the 
thing,  however  it  be  expressed,  the  least  is  in  the 
language.  If  the  original  language  were  our  mo- 
ther tongue.  Scripture  is  not  much  the  easier  to 
us ;  and  a  natural  Greek  or  a  Jew  can,  with  no 
more  reason,  nor  authority,  obtrude  his  inter- 
pretation upon  other  men's  consciences,  than  a 
man  of  another  nation.  Add  to  this,  that  the  in- 
spection of  the  original  is  no  more  certain  way  of 
interpretation  of  Scripture  now,  than  it  was  to 
the  fathers  and  primitive  ages  of  the  church  ;  and 
yet  he  that  observes  what  infinite  variety  of  trans- 
lations of  the  Bible  were  in  the  first  ages  of  the 
church  (as  St.  Jerome  observes),  and  never  a  one 
like  another,  will  think  that  we  shall  differ  a% 
much  in  our  interpretations  as  they  did,  and  that 
the  medium  is  as  uncertain  to  us  as  it  was  to  them, 
and  so  it  is ;   witness  the  great  number  of  late 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  149 

translations,  and  the  infinite  number  of  comment- 
aries, which  are  too  pregnant  an  argument,  that 
we  neither  agree  in  the  understanding  of  the  words 
nor  in  the  sense. 

The  truth  is,  all  these  ways  of  interpreting  of 
Scripture,  which  of  themselves  are  good  helps,  are 
made,  either  by  design  or  by  our  infirmities,  ways 
of  intricating  and  involving  Scriptures  in  greater 
difficulty;  because  men  do  not  learn  their  doc- 
trines from  Scripture,  but  come  to  the  under- 
standing of  Scripture  with  preconceptions  and 
ideas  of  doctrines  of  their  own  ;  and  then  no 
wonder  that  Scriptures  look  like  pictures,  wherein 
every  man  in  the  room  believes  they  look  on  him 
only,  and  that  wheresoever  he  stands,  or  how 
often  soever  he  changes  his  station.  So  that  now 
what  was  intended  for  a  remedy  becomes  the  pro- 
moter of  our  disease,  and  our  meat  becomes  the 
matter  of  sicknesses  :  and  the  mischief  is,  the  wit 
of  man  cannot  find  a  remedy  for  it,  for  there  is 
no  rule,  no  limit,  no  certain  principle,  by  which 
all  men  may  be  guided  to  a  certain  and  so  infalli- 
ble an  interpretration,  that  he  can,  with  any  equity 
prescribe  to  others  to  believe  his  interpretations 
in  places  of  controversy  or  ambiguity.  A  man 
would  think  that  the  memorable  prophecy  of  Jacob, 
that  the  sceptre  should  not  depart  from  Judah  till 
Shiloh  come,  should  have  been  so  clear  a  deter- 
mination of  the  time  of  the  Messias,  that  a  Jew 
should  never  have  doubted  it  to  have  been  verified 
in  Jesus  of  Nazareth;  and  yet,  for  this  so  clear 
vaticination,  they  have  no  less  than  twenty-six 
answers.  St.  Paul  and  St.  James  seem  to  speak 
a  little  diversely  concerning  justification  by  faith 
and  works,  and  jet  to  my  understanding  it  is  very 
easy  to  reconcile  them ;  but  all  men  are  not  of 
13* 


150  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

my  mind,  for  Osiander,  in  his  confutation  of  the 
book  which  Melancthon  wrote  against  him,  ob- 
serves, that  there  are  twenty  several  opinions  con- 
cerning justification,  all  drawn  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, by  the  men  only  of  the  Augustan  confession. 
There  are  sixteen  several  opinions  concerning 
original  sin ;  and  as  many  definitions  of  the  sa- 
craments as  there  are  sects  of  men  that  disagree 
about  them. 

And  now  what  help  is  there  for  us  in  the  midst 
of  these  uncertainties  ?  If  we  follow  any  one  trans- 
lation, or  any  one  man's  commentary,  what  rule 
shall  we  have  to  choose  the  right  by  ?  Or  is  there 
any  one  man  that  hath  translated  perfectly,  or 
expounded  infallibly?  No  translation  challenges 
such  a  prerogative  as  to  be  authentic,  but  the 
vulgar  Latin ;  and  yet  see  with  what  good  success, 
for  when  it  was  declared  authentic  by  the  council 
of  Trent,  Sixtus  put  forth  a  copy  much  mended 
of  what  it  was,  and  tied  all  men  to  follow  that ; 
but  that  did  not  satisfy,  for  Pope  Clement  reviews 
and  corrects  it  in  many  places,  and  still  the  decree 
remains  in  a  changed  subject.  And,  secondly, 
that  translation  will  be  very  unapt  to  satisfy,  in 
which  one  of  their  own  men,  Isidore  Clarius,  a 
monk  of  Brescia,  found  and  mended  eight  thou- 
sand faults,  besides  innumerable  others,  which  he 
says  he  pretermitted.  And  then,  thirdly,  to  show 
how  little  themselves  were  satisfied  with  it,  divers 
learned  men  amongst  them  did  new  translate  the 
Bible,  and  thought  they  did  God  and  the  church 
good  service  in  it.  So  that,  if  you  take  this  for 
your  precedent,  j^ou  are  sure  to  be  mistaken  infi- 
nitely ;  if  you  take  any  other,  the  authors  them- 
selves do  not  promise  you  any  security.  If  you 
resolve  to  follow  any  one  as  far  only  as  you  see 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  15L 

cause,  then  you  only  do  wrong  or  right  by  chance : 
for  you  have  certainty  just  proportionable  to  your 
own  skill,  to  your  own  infallibility.  If  you  re- 
solve to  follow  any  one,  whithersoever  he  leads, 
we  shall  oftentimes  come  thither,  where  we  shall 
see  ourselves  become  ridiculous,  as  it  happened  in 
the  case  of  Spiridion,  bishop  of  Cyprus,  who  so 
resolved  to  follow  his  old  book,  that  when  an  elo- 
quent bishop,  who  was  desired  to  preacli,  read  liis 
text,  •  Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk,'  Spiridion  was 
very  angry  with  him,  because  in  his  book  it  was 
*  take  up  thy  couch,'  and  thought  it  arrogance  in 
the  preacher  to  speak  better  Latin  than  his  trans- 
lator had  done:  and  if  it  be  thus  in  translations, 
it  is  far  worse  in  expositions,  "because  in  truth, 
all  do  not  receive  the  Holy  Scriptures,  on  account 
of  their  profundity,  in  the  same  sense,  for  there 
are  as  many  expositors  as  there  are  sentences  in 
it,"*  said  Vincent  Lirinensis;  in  which  every 
man  knows  what  innumerable  ways  there  are  of 
being  mistaken,  God  having,  in  things  not  simply 
necessary,  left  such  a  difficulty  upon  those  parts 
of  Scripture  which  are  the  subject  matters  of  con- 
troversy (as  St.  Austin  gives  a  reason!),  that  all 
that  err  honestly  are  therefore  to  be  pitied  and 
tolerated ;  because  it  may  be  the  condition  of 
every  man,  at  one  time  or  other. 

The  sum  is  this:  Since  Holy  Scripture  is  the 
repository  of  divine  truths,  and  the  great  rule  of 
faith,  to  which  all  sects  of  Christians  do  appeal 
for  probation  of  their  several  opinions ;  and  since 

*  "  Quia  scil.  Scripturam  Sacram  pro  ipsa  sui  altitudine 
non  uno  eodemque  sensu  omnes  accipiunt,  ut  pene  quot 
homines  tot  illic  sententiaj  erui  posse  videantur." — In  Com- 
monit. 

t  "  Ad  edomandum  labore  superbiam,  et  intellectum  a  fas- 
tidio  revocandum."— Lib.  ii.  De  Doctr.  Christian,  c.  C. 


152  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

all  agree  in  the  articles  of  the  creed,  as  things 
clearly  and  plainly  set  down,  and  as  containing 
all  that  which  is  of  simple  and  prime  necessity; 
and  since,  on  the  other  side,  there  are  in  Scripture 
many  other  mysteries,  and  matters  of  question 
upon  which  there  is  a  veil ;  since  there  are  so 
many  copies,  with  infinite  varieties  of  reading; 
since  a  various  interpunction,  a  parenthesis,  a  let- 
ter, an  accent,  may  much  alter  the  sense;  since 
some  places  have  divers  literal  senses,  many  have 
spiritual,  mystical,  and  allegorical  meanings ;  since 
there  are  so  many  tropes,  metonymies,  ironies,  hy- 
perboles, proprieties,  and  improprieties  of  language, 
whose  understanding  depends  upon  such  circum- 
stances that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  know  its 
proper  interpretation,  now  that  the  knowledge  of 
such  circumstances  and  particular  stories  is  irre- 
vocably lost;  since  there  are  some  mysteries  which, 
at  the  best  advantage  of  expression,  are  not  easy 
to  be  apprehended,  and  whose  explication,  by  rea- 
son of  our  imperfections,  must  needs  be  dark, 
sometimes  unintelligible;  and  lastly,  since  those 
ordinary  means  of  expounding  Scripture,  as  search- 
ing the  originals,  conference  of  places,  parity  of 
reason,  and  analogy  of  faith,  are  all  dubious, 
uncertain,  and  very  fallible, — he  that  is  the  wisest, 
and  by  consequence  the  likeliest  to  expound 
truest  in  all  probability  of  reason,  will  be  very  far 
from  confidence ;  because  every  one  of  these,  and 
many  more,  are  like  so  many  degrees  of  improba- 
bility and  uncertainty,  all  depressing  our  certainty 
or  finding  out  truth  in  such  mysteries,  and  amidst 
so  many  difficulties.  And,  therefore,  a  wise  man 
that  considers  this,  would  not  willingly  be  pre- 
scribed to  by  others  ;  and,  therefore,  if  he  also  be 
a  just  man,  he  will   not  impose  upon  others  ;  for 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  153 

it  is  best  every  man  should  be  left  in  that  liberty 
from  which  no  man  can  justly  take  him,  unless  he 
could  secure  him  from  error:  so  that  here  also 
there  is  a  necessity  to  conserve  the  liberty  of 
prophesying  and  interpreting  Scripture ;  a  ne- 
cessity derived  from  the  consideration  of  the 
difficulty  of  Scripture  in  questions  controverted, 
and  the  uncertainty  of  any  internal  medium  of 
interpretation. 


154  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 


SECTION    V. 


Of  the  insiffficiency  and  uncertainty  of  Tradition 
to  expound  Scripture,  or  determine  Questions. 

In  the  next  place,  we  must  consider  those  ex- 
trinsical means  of  interpreting  Scripture,  and 
determining  questions,  which  thej  most  of  all 
confide  in,  tliat  restrain  prophesying  with  the 
greatest  tyranny.  The  first  and  principal  is 
Tradition,  which  is  pretended  not  only  to  expound 
Scripture,  "for  it  is  requisite,  on  account  of  the 
various  turns  and  windings  of  error,  that  the  drift 
of  prophetic  and  apostolic  interpretation  be  regu- 
lated according  to  the  concurrent  opinion  of  the 
universal  church;"*  but  also  to  propound  articles 
upon  a  distinct  stock,  such  articles  whereof  tliere 
is  no  mention  and  proposition  in  Scripture.  And 
in  this  topic,  not  only  the  distinct  articles  are  clear 
and  plain,  like  as  the  fundamentals  of  faith 
expressed  in  Scripture,  but  also  it  pretends  to 
expound  Scripture,  and  to  determine  questions 
with  so  much  clarity  and  certainty,  as  there  shall 
neither  be  error  nor  doubt  remaining ;  and  tlierefore 
no  disagreeing  is  here  to  be  endured.  And  indeed 
it  is  most  true,  if  tradition  can  perform  these 
pretensions,  and  teach  us  plainly,  and  assure  us 
infallibly  of  all  truths  which  they  require  us  to 
believe,  we  can,  in  this  case,  have  no  reason  to 

*  "  Necesse  enim  est  propter  tantos  tarn  varii  erroris  anfrac- 
tas,  ut  propheticje  et  apostolicse  interpretationis  linea  secun- 
dum ecclesiastic!  et  catholici  sensus  normam  dirigatur."— 
Vincent.  Lirinens.  in  Commonitor 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  155 

disbelieve  them,  and  therefore  are  certainly  heretics 
it"  we  do  ;  because,  without  a  crime,  without  some 
human  interest  or  collateral  design,  we  cannot 
disbelieve  traditive  doctrine  or  traditive  interpret- 
ation, if  it  be  infallibly  proved  to  us  that  tradition 
is  an  infallible  guide. 

But  here  I  first  consider  that  tradition  is  no  re- 
pository of  articles  of  faith,  and  therefore  the  not 
following  it  is  no  argument  of  heresy ;  for,  besides , 
that  I  have  showed  Scripture  in  its  plain  expresses 
to  be  an  abundant  rule  of  faith  and  manners,  tra- 
dition is  a  topic  as  fallible  as  any  other;  so  fallible, 
that  it  cannot  be  sufficient  evidence  to  any  man  in 
a  matter  of  faith  or  question  of  heresy. 

For,  first,  I  find  that  the  fathers  were  infinitely 
deceived  in  their  account  and  enumeration  of 
traditions;  sometimes  they  did  call  some  traditions 
such,  not  which  they  knew  to  be  so,  but  by  argu- 
ments and  presumptions  they  concluded  them  so. 
Such  as  was  that  of  vSt.  Austin:  ''What  is  held 
by  the  universal  church,  and  not  known  to  have 
been  decreed  by  councils,  is  to  be  considered  as 
derived  from  apostolical  tradition."*  Now,  sup- 
pose this  rule  probable,  that  is  the  most,  yet  it  is 
not  certain ;  it  might  come  by  custom,  whose 
original  was  not  known,  but  yet  could  not  derive 
from  an  apostolical  principle.  Now,  when  they 
conclude  of  particular  traditions  by  a  general 
rule,  and  that  general  rule  not  certain,  but  at  the 
most  probable  in  any  thing,  and  certainly  false  in 
some  things,  it  is  no  wonder  if  the  productions, 
that  is,  their  judgments  and  pretence,  fail  so  often. 

*  "  Ea  quae  universalis  tenet  ecclesia  nee  a  conciliis  instituta 
reperiuntur,  credibile  est  ab  apostolonim  traditione  descend- 
isse." — Epist.  cxviii.  ad  Sunar.  de  Bapt.  Contr.  Donat.  lib.  iv, 
c.  24. 


156  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

And  if  I  should  but  instance  in  all  the  particulars 
in  which  tradition  was  pretended,  falsely  or  uncer- 
tainly, in  the  first  ages,  I  should  multiply  them  to  a 
troublesome  variety ;  for  it  was  then  accounted  so 
glorious  a  thing  to  have  spoken  with  the  persons 
of  the  apostles,  that  if  any  man  could,  with  any 
color,  pretend  to  it,  he  might  abuse  the  whole 
church,  and  obtrude  what  he  listed,  under  the 
specious  title  of  apostolical  tradition ;  and  it  is 
ver}^  notorious  to  every  man  that  will  but  read  and 
observe  the  recog-nitions  or  Stro7nata  of  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  wliere  there  is  enough  of  such  false 
wares  showed  in  every  book,  and  pretended  to  be 
no  less  than  from  the  apostles.  In  the  first  age 
after  the  apostles,  Papias  pretended  he  received  a 
tradition  from  the  apostles,  that  Christ,  before  the 
day  of  judgment,  should  reign  a  thousand  years 
upon  earth,  and  his  saints  wdth  him,  in  temporal 
felicities  ;  and  this  thing,  proceeding  from  so  great 
an  authority  as  the  testimony  of  Papias,  drew  after 
it  all,  or  most,  of  the  Christians  in  the  first  three 
hundred  years.  For,  besides  that  the  millenary 
opinion  is  expressly  taught  by  Papias,  Justin 
Martyr,  Irenseus,  Origen,  Lactantius,  Severus, 
Victorinus,  ApoUinaris,  Nepos,  and  divers  others, 
famous  in  their  time,  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  dialogue 
against  Tryphon,  says,  it  was  the  belief  of  all 
Christians  exactly  orthodox;  and  yet  there  was 
no  such  tradition,  but  a  mistake  in  Papias ;  but  I 
find  it  nowhere  spoke  against,  till  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria,  confuted  Nepos's  book,  and  converted 
Coracion,  the  Egyptian,  from  the  opinion.  Now, 
if  a  tradition,  whose  beginning  of  being  called  so 
began  with  a  scholar  of  the  apostles  (for  so  was 
Papias),  and  then  continued,  for  some  ages,  upon 
the  mere  authority  of  so  famous  a  man,  did  yet 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIxNG.  157 

deceive  the  church,  much  more  fallible  is  the 
pretence,  when,  two  or  three  hundred  years  after, 
it  but  commences,  and  then,  bj  some  learned  man, 
is  first  called  a  tradition  apostolical.  And  so  it 
happened  in  the  case  of  the  Arian  heresy,  which 
the  Nicene  fathers  did  confute  by  objecting  a 
contrary  tradition  apostolical,  as  Theodoret  re- 
ports ;*  and  yet  if  they  had  not  had  better  argu- 
ments from  Scripture  than  from  tradition,  they 
would  have  failed  much  in  so  good  a  cause ;  for 
this  very  pretence  the  Arians  themselves  made, 
and  desired  to  be  tried  by  the  fathers  of  the  first 
three  hundred  years  ;t  which  was  a  confutation 
sufficient  to  them  who  pretended  a  clear  tradition, 
because  it  was  unimaginable  that  the  tradition 
should  leap  so  as  not  to  come  from  the  first  to  the 
last  by  the  middle.  But  that  this  trial  was  some- 
time declined  by  that  excellent  man  St.  Athanasius, 
although  at  other  times  confidently  and  truly 
pretended,  it  was  an  argument  the  tradition  was 
not  so  clear,  but  both  sides  might  with  some 
fairness  pretend  to  it.  And,  therefore,  one  of 
the  prime  founders  of  their  heresy,  the  heretic, 
Artemon,:j:  having  observed  the  advantage  might 
be  taken  by  any  sect  that  would  pretend  tradition, 
because  the  medium  was  plausible,  and  consisting 
of  so  many  particulars  that  it  was  hard  to  be 
redargued,  pretended  a  tradition  from  the  apostles, 
that  Christ  was  a  mere  man,  and  that  the  tradition 
did  descend  by  a  constant  succession,  in  the 
church  of  Rome  to  pope  Victor's  time  inclusively, 
and  tdl  Zepherinus  had  interrupted  the  series,  and 
corrupted  the  doctrine ;  which  pretence,  if  it  had 

*  Lib.  i.  Hist.  c.  8. 

1  Vide  Petav.  in  Epiph.  Haer.  69. 

X  Euseb.  lib.  v.  c.  ult. 

14 


158  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

not  had  some  appearance  of  truth,  so  as  possibly 
to  abuse  the  church,  liad  not  been  worthy  of 
confutation,  which  yet  was  with  care  undertaken 
by  an  old  MTiter,  out  of  whom  Eusebius  transcribes 
a  large  passage,  to  reprove  the  vanity  of  the  pre- 
tender. But  I  observe  from  hence,  that  it  was 
usual  to  pretend  to  tradition,  and  that  it  was  easier 
pretended  than  confuted;  and  I  doubt  not  but 
oftener  done  than  discovered.  A  great  question 
arose  in  Africa,  concerning  the  baptism  of  heretics, 
whether  it  were  valid  or  no.  St,  Cyprian  and  his 
party  appealed  to  Scripture ;  Stephen,  bishop  of 
Rome,  and  his  party,  would  be  judged  by  custom, 
and  tradition  ecclesiastical.  See  how  much  the 
nearer  the  question  was  to  a  determination  :  either 
that  probation  was  not  accounted  by  St.  Cyprian, 
and  the  bishops,  both  of  Asia  and  Africk,  to  be  a 
good  argument,  and  sufficient  to  determine  them, 
or  there  was  no  certain  tradition  against  them  ; 
for,  unless  one  of  these  two  do  it,  nothing  could 
excuse  them  from  opposing  a  known  truth ;  unless, 
peradventure,  St.  Cyprian,  Firmilian,  the  bishops 
of"  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  and  almost  two  parts  of 
the  world,  were  ignorant  of  such  a  tradition,  for 
they  krtew  of  none  such,  and  some  of  them  ex- 
pressly denied  it.  And  the  sixth  general  synod 
approves  of  the  canon  made  in  the  council  of 
Carthage,  under  Cyprian,  upon  this  very  ground, 
because  "  the  tradition  was  preserved  only  in  the 
dioceses  of  those  bishops,  and  according  to  a 
custom  handed  down  among  them."*  They  had  a 
particular  tradition  for  rebaptization  ;  and  there- 
fore, there  could  be  no  tradition  universal  against 
it,  or,  if  there  v/ere,  they  knew  not  of  it,  but 

*  "  In  prsedictorum  prsesuluin  locis,  et  solum  secundum 
traditam  eis  consuetudinem,  servatus  est." 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  159 

much  for  the  contrary;  and  then,  it  would  be 
remembered,  that  a  concealed  tradition  was  like 
a  silent  thunder,  or  a  law  not  promulgated ;  it 
neither  was  known,  nor  was  obligatory.  And  I 
shall  observe  this  too,  that  this  very  tradition  was 
so  obscure,  and  was  so  obscurely  delivered,  so 
silently  proclaimed,  that  St.  Austin,"^  who  disputed 
against  the  Donatists  upon  this  very  question, 
was  not  able  to  prove  it,  but  by  a  consequence 
which  he  thought  probable  and  credible,  as  appears 
in  his  discourse  against  the  Donatists.  ''  The 
apostles,"  saith  St.  Austin,  "prescribed  nothing 
in  this  particular:  but  this  custom,  which  is  con- 
trary to  Cyprian,  ought  to  be  believed  to  have 
come  from  their  tradition,  as  many  other  things 
which  the  catholic  church  observes."  That  is  all 
the  ground  and  all  the  reason ;  nay,  the  churcli 
did  waver  concerning  that  question,  and  before 
the  decision  of  a  council,  Cypriant  and  others 
might  dissent  without  breach  of  charity.  It  was 
plain,  then,  there  was  no  clear  tradition  in  the 
question;  possibly  there  might  be  a  custom  in 
some  churches  postnate  to  the  times  of  the  apostles, 
but  nothing  that  was  obligatory,  no  tradition  apos- 
tolical. But  this  was  a  suppletory  device,  ready 
at  hand  whenever  they  needed  it ;  and  St.  Austini 
confuted  the  Pelagians,  in  the  question  of  original 
sin,  by  the  custom  of  exorcism  and  insufflation^ 
which,  St.  Austin  said,  came  from  the  apostles  by 
tradition,  which  yet  was  then,  and  is  now,  so  im- 
possible to  be  proved,  that  he  that  shall  affirm  it^ 
shall  gain  only  the  reputation  of  a  bold  man  and 
a  confident. 

*  Lib.  V.  De  Baptism.  Contr.  Donat.  c.  23. 

t  Lib.  i.  De  Baptism,  c.  IS. 

X  De  Peccat.  Original,  lib.  li.  c.  40.  contra.  Pelaer.  et  Caslest. 


160  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

2.  I  consider,  if  the  report  of  traditions  in  the 
primitive  times,  so  near  the  ages  apostolical,  was 
so  uncertain,  that  thej  v/ere  fain  to  aim  at  them 
bj  conjectures,  and  grope  as  in  the  dark,  the 
uncertainty  is  much  increased  since;  because 
there  are  many  famous  writers  whose  works  are 
lost,  which  yet,  if  they  had  continued,  they  might 
have  been  good  records  to  us,  as  Clemens  Romanus, 
Egesippus,  Nepos,  Coracion,  Dionysius  Areopa- 
gite,  of  Alexandria,  of  Corinth,  Firmilian,  and 
many  more:  and  since  we  see  pretences  have 
been  made,  without  reason,  in  those  ages  where 
they  might  better  have  been  confuted  than  now 
they  can,  it  is  greater  prudence  to  suspect  any 
later  pretences,  since  so  many  sects  have  been, 
so  many  wars,  so  many  corruptions  in  authors,  so 
many  authors  lost,  so  much  ignorance  hath  inter- 
vened, and  so  many  interests  have  been  served,  that 
now  the  rule  is  to  be  altered :  and  whereas  it  was 
of  old  time  credible,  that  that  was  apostolical  whose 
beginning  they  knew  not ;  now,  quite  contrary,  we 
cannot  safely  believe  them  to  be  apostolical,  unless 
we  do  know  their  beginning  to  have  been  from  the 
apostles.  For  this  consisting  of  probabilities  and 
particulars,  which,  put  together,  make  up  a  moral 
demonstration,  the  argument  which  I  now  urge 
hath  been  growing  these  fifteen  hundred  years; 
and  if  anciently  there  was  so  much  as  to  evacuate 
the  authority  of  tradition,  much  more  is  there  now 
absolutely  to  destroy  it,  when  all  the  particulars, 
which  time  and  infinite  variety  of  human  accidents 
have  been  amassing  together,  are  now  concentered, 
and  are  united  by  way  of  constipation.  Because 
every  age,  and  every  great  change,  and  every 
heresy,  and  every  interest,  hath  increased  the 
difficulty  of  finding  out  true  traditions. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIKG.  l6l 

3.  There  are  very  many  traditions  which  are- 
lost;  and  yet  they  are  concerning  matters  of  as 
great  consequence  as  most  of  those  questions,  for 
the  detemnination  whereof  traditions  are  pretended: 
it  is  more  than  probable,  that  as  in  baptism  and  the 
eucharist  the  very  forms  of  ministration  are  trans- 
mitted to  usj  so  also  in  confirmation  and  ordination^ 
and  that  there  v/ere  special  directions  for  visitation 
of  the  sick,  and  explicit  interpretations  of  those 
difficult  places  of  St.  Paul,  which  St.  Peter 
affirmed  to  be  so  difficult,  that  the  ignorant  do 
wrest  them  to  their  own  damnation  ;  and  yet  no. 
church  hatii  conserved  these,  or  those  many  more 
which  St.  Basil  affirms  to  be  so  many,  that  the 
day  would  fail  him  in  JLhe  very  simple  enumeratiorj 
of  all  traditions  ecclesiastical.*  And  if  the  clnucli 
hath  failed  in  keeping  the  great  variety  of  tradi 
tions,  it  vv'ill  luirdly  be  'thought  a  fault  in  a  private 
person  to  neglect  tradition,  which  either  the  whole 
church  hath  very  much  neglected  inculpably,  or 
else  the  whole  church  is  very  much  to  blame 
And  who  can  ascertain  us  that  she  hath  not  enter- 
tained some  which  are  no  traditions,  as  w^ell  ay 
lost  thousands  that  are  ?  That  she  did  entertain- 
some  false  traditions,  I  have  already  proved  ;  but  i* 
is  also  as  probable  that  some  of  those  which  these 
ages  did  propound  for  traditions  are  not  so,  as  it 
is  certain  that  some,  which  the  first  ages  called 
traditions,  were  nothing  less. 

4.  There  are  some  opinions,  which  when  ih&y 
began  to  be  publicly  received,  began  to  be  ac- 
counted prime  traditions;  and  so  became  such,  not 
by  a  native  title,  but  by  adoption ;  and  nothing  is 
more  usual  than  for  the  fathers  to  color  their  po- 

uivov. — Cap.  29.  De  Spir.  Sancto. 
14^ 


162  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

pular  opinion  with  so  great  an  appellative.  St. 
Austin  called  the  communicating  of  infants  an 
apostolical  tradition ;  and  yet  we  do  not  practise 
it,  because  w"  disbelieve  the  allegation.  And  that 
every  custoin,  which  at  first  introduction  was  but 
a  private  fancy  or  singular  practice,  grew  after- 
wards into  a  public  rite,  and  went  for  a  tradition 
after  a  while  continuance,  appears  by  TertuUian, 
who  seems  to  justify  it;  "You  do  not  think  it 
lawful  for  any  Christian  to  appoint,  for  discipline 
and  salvation,  whatever  he  may  deem  well-pleas- 
ing to  God."  And  again.  ''  Whoever  tradition 
be  introduced  by,  you  should  regard  not  the  au- 
thor, but  the  authority."*  And  St.  Jerome  most 
plainly  :  "  The  decisions  of  the  fathers  are  to  be 
esteemed  by  all  as  apostolical  traditions."t  And 
when  Irenseus  had  observed  that  great  variety  in 
the  keeping  of  Lent,  Vvhich  yet  to  be  a  forty  day's 
fast  is  pretended  to  descend  from  tradition  apos- 
tolical, some  fasting  but  one  day  before  Easter, 
some  two,  some  forty,  and  this  even  long  before 
Irenisus's  time,  he  gives  this  reason  :  "  That 
variety  of  fasting  originated  with  our  fathers,  who 
did  not  carefully  observe  their  custom,  who  either 
from  simplicity  or  personal  authority,  were  for  or- 
daining rites  for  their  posterity.""}:  And  there  are 
yet  some  points  of  good  concernment,  Vv^hich  if  any 

*  "  Non  enim  existiraas  tu  licitum  esse  cuicunque  fideli 
constituere  quod  Deo  placere  iili  visum  fuerit,  ad  disciplinam 
et  salutem." — Contra  Marcion.  "A  quocunque  traditore 
censetur,  nee  autborem  respicias  sed  authoritatem." — De 
Coron.  milit.  c.  3  et  4. 

I  "  Prrocepta  majorum  apostolicas  ti'aditiones  quisque 
existimat." — Apud  Euseb.  lib.  v.  c.  24. 

X  Vai-ietas  ilia  jejunii  coepit  apud  majores  nostros,  qui 
lion  accurate  consuetudinem  eorum  qui  vel  siraplicitate  qua- 
dain  vel  pvivata  authoritate  in  posterum  aiiquid  statuissent, 
obssrvarant." — Ex  translatione  Christophersoni. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIXG.  163 

man  should  question  in  a  high  manner,  they  would 
prove  indeterminable  by  Scripture,  or  sufficient 
reason  ;  and  yet  I  doubt  not  their  confident  defend- 
ers would  say,  they  are  opinions  of  the  church,  and 
quickly  pretend  a  tradition  from  the  very  apostles, 
and  believe  themselves  so  secure,  that  they  could 
not  be  discovered ;  because  the  question  never 
having  been  disputed,  gives  them  occasion  to  say, 
that  which  had  no  beginning  known  was  certainly 
from  the  apostles.  For  why  should  not  divines  do 
in  the  question  of  reconfinration  as  in  that  of  re- 
baptization  ?  Are  not  the  grounds  equal  from  an 
indelible  character  in  one  as  in  the  other?  And 
if  it  happen  such  a  question  as  this,  after  contest- 
ation, should  be  determined,  not  by  any  positive 
decree,  but  by  the  cession  of  one  part,  and  the 
authority  and  reputation  of  the  other,  does  not  the 
next  age  stand  fair  to  be  abused  with  a  pretence 
of  tradition  in  the  matter  of  reconfirmation,  v/liich 
never  yet  came  to  a  serious  question  ?  for  so  it 
was  in  the  question  of  rebaptization ;  for  which 
there  was  then  no  more  evident  tradition  than 
there  is  now  in  the  question  of  reconfirmation, 
as  I  proved  formerly,  but  yet  it  was  carried  upon 
that  title. 

5.  There  is  great  variety  in  the  probation  of 
tradition ;  so  that  whatever  is  proved  to  be  tradi- 
tion, is  not  equally  and  alike  credible ;  for  nothing 
but  universal  tradition  is  of  itself  credible ;  other 
traditions  in  their  just  proportion,  as  they  partake 
of  the  degrees  of  universality.  Now,  that  a  tra- 
dition be  universal,  or,  which  is  all  one,  that  it  be 
a  credible  testimonj^,  St.  Irenasus*  requires  that 
tradition  should  derive  from  all  the  churches 
apostolical ;  and,  therefore,  according  to  this  rule, 

*  Lib  iii.  c.  4, 


104  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

iheve  was  no  sufficient  medium  to  determine  the 
question  about  Easter,  because  the  eastern  and 
western  churches  had  several  traditions  respect- 
ively, and  both  pretended  from  the  apostles. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus*  says,  it  was  a  secret  tra- 
dition from  the  apostles,  that  Christ  preached  but 
one  year;  but  Irenseust  says,  it  did  derive  from 
heretics ;  and  says,  that  he,  by  tradition,  first  from 
St.  John,  and  then  from  his  disciples,  received 
another  tradition,  that  Christ  was  almost  fifty 
years  old  when  he  died ;  and  so,  by  consequence, 
preached  almost  twenty  years :  both  of  them  were 
deceived,  and  so  had  all  that  had  believed  the 
report  of  cither,  pretending  tradition  apostolical. 
Thus,  the  custom  in  the  Latin  church  of  fasting 
on  Saturday,  v/as  against  that  tradition  which  the 
Oreeks  had  from  the  apostles ;  and  therefore,  by 
(his  division  and  want  of  consent,  which  was  the 
true  tradition,  was  so  absolutely  indeterminable, 
that  botl)  must  needs  lose  much  of  their  reputa- 
tion. But  how  then,  when  not  only  particular 
churches,  but  single  persons,  are  all  the  proof  we 
have  for  a  tradition  ?  and  this  often  happened  :  I 
think  St.  Austin  is  the  chief  argument  and  au- 
thority we  have  for  the  assumption  of  the  Virgin 
Mary;  the  baptism  of  infants  is  called  a  tradition 
by  Origen  alone,  at  first,  and  from  him  by  others. 
The  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Son, 
which  is  an  article  the  Greek  church  disavows, 
derives  from  the  tradition  apostolical,  as  it  is  pre- 
tended ;  and  yd  before  St.  Austin,  we  hear  nothing 
of  it  very  clearly  or  certainly,  forasmuch  as  that 
whole  mystery,  concerning  the  blessed  Spirit,  was 
so  little  csplicated  to  Scripture,  and  so  little  de- 
rived to  them  by  tradition,  that,  till  the  council  of 

*  Lib.  i.  Stroma.  t  ^'^^-  "•  c.  39 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  165 

Nice,  you  shall  hanlly  find  any  form  of  worship, 
or  personal  address  of  devotion  to  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  Erasmus  observes;  and  I  think  the  contrary 
will  very  hardly  be  verified.  And  for  this  parti- 
cular in  which  I  instance,  whatsoever  is  in  Scrip- 
ture concerning  it,  is  against  that  which  the  church 
of  Rome  calls  tradition;  which  makes  the  Greeks 
so  confident  as  they  are  of  the  point,  and  is  an 
argument  of  the  vanity  of  some  things  which  for 
no  greater  reason  are  called  traditions,  but  because 
one  man  hath  said  so,  and  that  they  can  be  proved 
by  no  better  argument  to  be  true.  Now,  in  this 
case,  wherein  tradition  descends  upon  us  with 
unequal  certainty,  it  would  be  very  unequal  to 
require  of  us  an  absolute  belief  of  every  thing 
not  written,  for  fear  we  be  accounted  to  slight 
tradition  apostolical.  And  since  nothing  can  re- 
quire our  supreme  assent,  but  that  which  is  truly 
catholic  and  apostolical,  and  to  such  a  tradition  is 
required,  as  Irenscus  says,  the  consent  of  all  these 
churches  which  the  apostles  planted,  and  where 
they  did  preside,  this  topic  will  be  of  so  little  use 
in  judging  heresies,  that  (besides  what  is  deposited 
in  Scripture)  it  cannot  be  proved  in  any  thing  but 
in  the  canon  of  Scripture  itself;  and,  as  it  is  now 
received,  even  in  that  there  is  some  variety. 

And  therefore  there  is  wholly  a  mistake  in  this 
business ;  for  when  the  fathers  appeal  to  tradition, 
and  with  much  earnestness  and  some  clamor  they 
call  upon  heretics  to  conform  to,  or  to  be  tried  by 
tradition,  it  is  such  a  tradition  as  delivers  the  fun- 
damental points  of  Christianity,  which  were  also 
recorded  in  Scripture.  But  because  the  canon 
was  not  yet  perfectly  consigned,  they  called  to 
that  testimony  they  had,  which  was  the  testimony 
of  the  churches  apostolical,  whose  bishops  and 


166 


THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


priests,  being  the  chief  authorities  in  religion,  did 
believe  and  preach  Christian  religion,  and  conserve 
all  its  great  mjsteries  according  as  thej  had  been 
taught.  Irenseus  calls  this  a  tradition  apostolical, 
"  that  Christ  took  the  cup,  and  said  it  was  his  own 
blood,  and  taught  the  new  oblation  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  the  church,  receiving  from  the 
apostles,  presents  throughout  the  whole  world."* 
And  the  fathers  in  these  ages  confute  heretics  by 
ecclesiastical  tradition ;  that  is,  they  confront 
against  their  impious  and  blasphemous  doctrines 
that  religion  which  the  apostles  having  taught  to 
the  churches  where  thej  did  preside,  their  suc- 
cessors did  still  preach;  and  for  a  long  while  to- 
gether suffered  not  the  enemy  to  sow  tares  amongst 
their  wheat.  And  yet  these  doctrines,  which  they 
called  traditions,  were  nothing  but  such  funda- 
mental truths  which  were  in  Scripture,  all  coinci- 
dent with  holy  writ,  as  Irenseust  in  Eiiaebius 
observes,  in  the  instance  of  Polycarpus ;  and  it  is 
manifest,  by  considering  what  heresies  they  fought 
against,  the  heresies  of  Ebion,  Cerinthus,  Nicolai- 
tans,  Valentinians,  Carpocratians,:}:  persons  that 
denied  the  son  of  God,  the  unity  of  the  Godhead, 
that  preached  impurity,  that  practised  sorcery  and 
witchcraft.  And  now,  that  they  did  rather  urge 
tradition  against  them  than  Scripture,  was,  because 
the  public  doctrine  of  all  the  apostolical  churches 
was  at  first  more  known  and  famous  than  many 
parts  of  Scripture;  and  because  some  heretics 
denied  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  some  received  none 
but  St.  Matthew's,  some  rejected  all  St.  Paul's 

*  "  Christum  accepisse  calicem,  et  dixisse  sanguinem  suum 
esse,  et  docuisse  novani  oblationera  Novi  Testaraenti,  quam 
ecclesia  per  apostolos  accipiens  offert  per  totura  mundum." 

t  Lib.  v.cap.  20. 

I  Vide  Irenee.  lib.  iii.  el  iv.  Cont.  Heres. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  167 

Epistles;  and  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  whole 
canon  was  consigned  bj  universal  testimony; 
some  churches  having  one  part,  some  another: 
Rome  herself  had  not  all :  so  that,  in  this  case,  the 
argument  from  tradition  v/as  the  most  famous,  the 
most  certain,  and  the  most  prudent.  And  now, 
according  to  this  rule  ti^ev  had  more  traditions 
than  we  have;  and  traditions  did  bj  degrees  lessen 
as  they  came  to  be  written,  and  their  necessity 
was  less  as  the  knowledge  of  them  was  ascertained 
to  us  by  a  better  keeper  of  divine  truths.  All  tliat 
great  mysteriousness  of  Christ's  priesthood,  the 
unity  of  his  sacrifice,  Christ's  advocation  and  in- 
tercession for  us  in  heaven,  and  many  other  ex- 
cellent doctrines,  might  Yerj  well  be  accounted 
traditions,  before  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  ihe  He- 
brews was  publivshed  to  all  the  v/orld  ;  but  nov/ 
they  are  written  truths:  and  if  tliey  had  not,  pos- 
sibly we  might  either  have  lost  theui  quite,  or 
doubted  of  them,  as  we  do  of  many  other  tradifions, 
by  reason  of  the  insudiciency  of  the  propounder. 
And  therefore  it  was  that  St.  Peter*  took  order 
that  the  Gospel  should  be  writ;  for  he  had  pro- 
mised that  he  would  do  something  which,  after  his 
decease,  should  have  these  things  in  remembrance. 
He  knew  it  was  not  safe  trusting  the  report  of 
men,  where  the  fountain  miglit  quickly  run  dry, 
or  bs  corrupted  so  insensibly  that  no  cure  could 
be  found  for  it,  nor  any  just  notice  taken  of  it  till 
it  were  incurable.  And,  indeed,  there  is  scarce 
any  thing  but  what  is  written  in  Scripture,  that 
can,  with  ariy  confidence  of  argument,  pretend  to 
derive  from  the  apostles,  except  rituals  and  man- 
ners of  ministration  ;  but  no  doctrines  or  specula- 
tive mysteries  are  so  transmitted  to  us  by  so  clear 
*  2  Pet.  i.  13. 


168  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

a  current,  that  we  may  see  a  visible  channel,  and 
trace  it  to  the  primitive  fountainSe  It  is  said  to 
be  a  tradition  apostolical,  that  no  priest  should 
baptize  without  chrism  and  the  command  of  the 
bishop :  suppose  it  were,  yet  we  cannot  be  obliged 
to  believe  it  with  much  confidence,  because  we 
have  but  little  proof  for  it,  scarce  any  thing  but 
the  single  testimony  of  St.  Jerome.*  And  yet,  if 
it  were,  this  is  but  a  ritual,  of  w^hich,  in  passing 
by,  I  shall  give  that  account,  that,  suppose  this 
and  many  more  rituals  did  derive  clearly  from 
tradition  apostolical  (which  yet  but  very  few  do), 
yet  it  is  hard  that  any  church  should  be  charged 
with  a  crime  for  not  observing  such  rituals,  because 
we  see  some  of  them,  which  certainly  did  derive 
from  the  apostles,  are  expired  and  gone  out  in  a 
desuetude ;  such  as  are  abstinence  from  blood  and 
from  things  strangled,  the  coenobitic  life  of  secular 
persons,  the  college  of  widows,  to  worship  standing 
upon  the  Lord's-day,  to  give  milk  and  honey  to 
the  newly  baptized,  and  many  more  of  the  like 
nature.  Now,  there  having  been  no  mark  to  dis- 
tinguish the  necessity  of  one  from  the  indifferency 
of  the  other,  they  are  all  alike  necessary,  or  alike 
indifferent;  if  the  former,  why  does  no  church 
observe  them?  if  the  latter,  why  does  the  church 
of  Rome  charge  upon  others  the  shame  of  novelty, 
for  leaving  of  some  rites  and  ceremonies  which, 
by  her  own  practice,  we  are  taught  to  have  no 
obligation  in  them,  but  to  be  adiaphorus  ?  St.  Paul 
gave  order,  that  a  bishop  should  be  the  husband  of 
one  wife ;  the  church  of  Rome  will  not  allow  so 
much;  other  churches  allow  more:  the  apostles 
commanded  Christians  to  fast  on  Wednesday  and 
Friday,  as  appears  in  their  canons ;  the  church  of 
*  Dialog,  adv.  Lucifer. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  TROPHESYING.  169 

Rome  fasts  Friday  and  Saturday,  and  not  on 
Wednesday :  the  apostles  had  their  agapse  or  love- 
feasts  ;  we  should  believe  them  scandalous ;  they 
used  a  kiss  of  charity  in  ordinary  addresses ;  the 
church  of  Rome  keeps  it  only  in  their  mass,  other 
churches  quite  omit  it:  i]\e  apostles  permitted 
priests  and  deacons  to  live  in  conjugal  society,  as 
appears  in  the  iifth  canon  of  the  apostles  (which  to 
them  is  an  argument  who  believe  them  such),  and 
yet  the  church  of  Rome  by  no  means  will  endure 
it ;  nay  more,  Michael  Medina"  gives  testimony, 
that  of  eighty-four  canons  apostolical  which  Cle- 
mens collected,  scarce  six  or  eight  are  observed  by 
the  Latin  church;  and  Peresius  gives  this  account 
of  it :  ''  Among  these  there  are  many  which,  owing 
to  the  corruption  of  the  times,  are  not  fully  ob- 
served ;  others  are  rejected,  on  account  either  of 
the  times  or  the  nature  of  them,  or  by  the  authority 
of  the  church."t  Now  it  were  good  that  they 
which  take  a  liberty  themselves,  should  also  allow 
the  same  to  others.  So  that,  for  one  thing  or 
other,  all  traditions,  excepting  those  very  few  that 
are  absolutely  universal,  will  lose  all  their  obliga- 
tion, and  become  no  competent  medium  to  confine 
men's  practices,  or  limit  their  faiths,  or  determine 
their  persuasions.  Either  for  the  difficulty  of  iheir 
being  proved,  the  incompetency  of  the  testimony 
that  transmits  them,  or  the  indiiferency  of  the  thing- 
transmitted,  all  traditions,  both  ritual  and  doctrinal, 
are  disabled  from  determining  our  consciences 
either  to  a  necessary  believing  or  obeying. 

6.  To  which  I  add,  by  way  of  confirmation,  that 

*  De  Sacr.  Horn.  Continent,  lib.  v,  cap.  105. 

I  "  In  illis  contineri  inulta  quae  tempoi-um  corruptione  non 
plene  observantur,  aliis  pro  temporis  et  materiEe  qualitate  aut 
obliteratis,  aut  totius  ecclesice  magisterio  abrogatis." — De 
Tradit.  part  iii.  c.  De  Author.  Can.  Apost. 
15 


170  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

there  are  some  things  called  traditions,  and  are 
offered  to  be  proved  to  us  by  a  tiestimonj,  which 
is  either  false  or  not  extant.  Clemens  of  Alexan- 
dria pretended  it  a  tradition,  that  the  apostles 
preached  to  them  that  died  in  infidelity,  even  after 
their  death,  and  then  raised  them  to  life ;  but  he 
proved  it  onlj  by  the  testimony  of  the  book  of 
Hermes.  He  affirmed  it  to  be  a  tradition  apos- 
tolical, that  the  Greeks  were  saved  by  their  philo- 
sophy; but  he  had  no  other  authority  for  it  but 
the  apocryphal  books  of  Peter  and  Paul.  Tertul- 
lian  and  St.  Basil  pretend  it  an  apostolical  tradi- 
tion, to  sign  in  the  air  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  : 
but  this  was  only  consigned  to  them  in  the  Gospel 
of  Nicodemus.  But  to  instance  once  for  all,  in 
the  epistle  of  Marcellus  to  the  bishop  of  Antioch, 
where  he  affirms  that  it  is  the  canons  of  the 
apostles,  "  that  councils  cannot  be  held  without 
the  consent  of  the  Roman  pontiff:  and  jei  there 
is  no  such  canon  extant,  nor  ever  v/as,  for  aught 
appears  in  any  record  we  have  ;  and  yet  the  col- 
lection of  the  canons  is  so  entire,  that  though  it 
hath  something  more  than  what  was  apostolical, 
yet  it  hath  nothing  less.  And  now  that  1  am 
casually  fallen  upon  an  instance  from  the  canons 
of  the  apostles,  I  consider  that  there  cannot,  in 
the  world,  a  greater  instance  be  given  how  easy  it 
is  to  be  abused  in  the  believing  of  traditions  :  for 
first,  to  the  first  fifty,  which  many  did  admit  for 
apostolical,  thirty-five  more  were  added,  which 
most  men  now  count  spurious,  all  men  call  dubious, 
and  some  of  them  universally  condemned  by 
peremptory  sentence,  even  by  them  who  are  great- 
est admirers  of  that  collection ;  as  the  sixty-fifth, 
sixty-seventh,  and  eighty-fourth  and  eighty-fifth 
canons.     For  the  first  fifty,  it  is  evident  that 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  171 

there  are  some  things  so  mixed  with  them,  and 
no  mark  of  difference  left,  that  the  credit  of  all 
is  much  impaired,  insomuch  that  Isidore  of  Se- 
ville* says,  "  they  were  apocryphal,  made  by 
heretics,  and  published  under  the  title  apostolical, 
but  neither  the  fathers  nor  the  church  of  Rome 
did  give  assent  to  them."  And  yet  they  have 
prevailed  so  far  amongst  some,  that  Damascent 
is  of  opinion  they  should  be  received  equally  with 
the  canonical  writings  of  the  apostles.  One  thing 
only  I  observe  (and  we  shall  find  it  true  in  most 
writings  whose  authority  is  urged  in  question  of 
theology),  that  the  authority  of  the  tradition  is  not 
it  which  moves  the  assent,  but  the  nature  of  the 
thing;  and  because  such  a  canon  is  delivered, 
they  do  not  therefore  believe  the  sanction  or 
proposition  so  delivered,  but  disbelieve  the  tra- 
dition, if  they  do  not  like  the  matter;  and  so 
do  not  judge  of  the  matter  by  the  tradition,  but 
of  the  tradition  by  the  matter.  And  thus  the 
church  of  Rome  rejects  the  eighty-fourth  or  eighty- 
fifth  canon  of  the  apostles,  not  because  it  is  deli- 
vered with  less  authority  than  the  last  thirty-five 
are,  but  because  it  reckons  the  canon  of  Scripture 
otherwise  than  it  is  at  Rome.  Thus  also  the  fifth 
canon  amongst  the  first  fifty,  because  it  approves 
the  marriage  of  priests  and  deacons,  does  not  per- 
suade them  to  approve  of  it  too,  but  itself  becomes 
suspected  for  approving  it;  so  that  either  they 
accuse  themselves  of  palpable  contempt  of  the 
apostolical  authority,  or  else  that  the  reputation 
of  such  traditions  is  kept  up  to  serve  their  own 
ends;  and  therefore,  when  they  encounter  them, 
they  are  more  to  be  upheld ;  which  what  else  is  it, 

*  Apud  Gratian.  Dis.  xvi.  c.  Canones. 
t  Lib.  i.  c.  18,  De  Orthod.  Fide. 


172  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

but  to  teach  all  the  world  to  contemn  such  pre- 
tences, and  undervalue  traditions,  and  to  supply 
to  others  a  reason  why  thej  should  do  that  which, 
to  them  that  give  the  occasion,  is  most  unrea- 
sonable ? 

7.  The  testimony  of  the  ancient  church  being 
the  only  means  of  proving  tradition,  and  some- 
times their  dictates  and  doctrine  being  the  tradi- 
tion pretended  of  necessity  to  be  imitated,  it  is 
considerable  that  men  in  their  estimate  of  it,  take 
their  rise  from  several  ages  and  differing  testimo- 
nies, and  are  not  agreed  about  the  competency  of 
their  testimony:  and  the  reasons  that  on  each 
side  make  them  differ,  are  such  as  make  the  au- 
thority itself  the  less  authentic,  and  more  repu- 
diable. Some  will  allow  only  of  the  three  first 
ages,  as  being  most  pure,  most  persecuted,  and 
therefore  most  holy ;  least  interested,  serving;  fewer 
designs,  having  fewest  factions,  and  therefore  more 
likely  to  speak  the  truth  for  God's  sake  and  its 
own,  as  best  complying  with  their  great  end  of 
acquiring  heaven  in  recompense  of  losing  their 
lives ;  others  say,  that  those  ages  being  persecuted, 
minded  the  present  doctrines  proportionable  to 
their  purposes  and  constitution  of  the  ages,  and 
make  little  or  nothing  of  those  questions  which  at 
this  day  vex  Christendom.*  And  both  speak 
true ;  the  first  ages  speak  greatest  truth,  but  least 
pertinently.  The  next  ages,  the  ages  of  the  four 
general  councils,  spake  some  things  not  much 
more  pertinently  to  the  present  questions,  but 
were  not  so  likely  to  speak  true,  by  reason  of 
their  dispositions,  contrary  to  the  capacity  and 
circumstances  of  the  first  ages ;  and  if  they  speak 
wisely  as  doctors,  yet  not  certainly  as  witnesses 
*  Vid.  Card.  Perron,  Letre  au  Sieur  Cassaubon. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHKSYIXG.  173 

of  such  propositions,  which  the  first  ages  noted 
not ;  and  jet,  unless  thev  had  not  noted,  could  not 
possibly  be  traditions.  And  therefore  either  of 
them  will  be  less  useful  as  to  our  present  affairs. 
For,  indeed,  the  questions  which  now  are  the 
public  trouble,  were  not  considered  or  thought 
upon  for  many  hundred  years ;  and,  therefore, 
prime  tradition  there  is  none  as  to  our  purpose; 
and  it  will  be  an  insufficient  medium  to  be  used  or 
pretended  in  the  determination;  and  to  dispute 
concerning  the  truth  or  necessity  of  traditions,  in 
the  questions  of  our  times,  is  as  if  historians,  dis- 
puting about  a  question  in  the  English  story, 
should  full  on  wrangling  whether  Livy  or  Plutarch 
were  the  best  writers :  and  the  earnest  disputes 
about  traditions  are  to  no  better  purpose.  For  ha 
church,  at  this  day,  admits  the  one  half  of  those 
things,  which  certainly  by  the  fathers  \vere  called 
traditions  apostolical ;  and  no  testimony  of  ancient 
writers  does  consign  the  one  half  of  the  present 
questions,  to  be  or  not  to  be  traditions.  So  that 
they  who  admit  only  the  doctrine  and  testimony 
of  the  first  ages,  cannot  be  determined  in  most  of 
their  doubts  which  now  trouble  us,  because  their 
writings  are  of  matters  wholly  diflering  from  Vae 
present  disputes;  and  they  which  would  bring  in 
after  ages  to  the  authority  of  a  competent  judge 
or  witness,  say  the  same  thing;  for  they  plainly 
confess,  that  the  first  ages  spake  little  or  nothing 
to  the  present  question,  or  at  least  nothing  to  their 
sense  of  them :  for  therefore  they  call  in  aid  from 
the  following  ages,  and  make  them  suppletory  and 
auxiliary  to  their  designs;  and  therefore  there  are 
no  traditions  to  our  purposes.  And  they  wlio 
would  willingly  have  it  otherwise,  yet  have  taken 
no  course  it  should  be  otlierwise:  for  thoy\  when 
15* 


174  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

they  had  opportunitj,  in  the  councils  of  the  last 
ages,  to  determine  what  they  had  a  mind  to,  yet 
they  never  named  the  number,  nor  expressed  the 
particular  traditions  which  they  would  fain  have 
the  world  to  believe  to  be  apostolical ;  but  they 
have  kept  the  bridle  in  their  own  har.ds,  and 
made  a  reserve  of  their  own  power,  that  if  need 
be,  they  may  make  new  pretensions,  or  not  be  put 
to  it  to  justify  the  old,  by  the  engagement  of  a 
conciliary  declaration. 

Lastly  :  We  are  acquitted,  by  the  testimony  of 
the  primitive  fathers,  from  any  other  necessity  of 
believing,  than  of  such  articles  as  are  recorded  in 
Scripture  :  and  this  is  done  by  them  whose  autho- 
rity is  pretended  the  greatest  argument  for  tradi- 
tion, as  appears  largely  in  Iren^Eus,*  who  disputes 
professedly  for  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture  against 
certain  heretics,  who  affirm  some  necessary  truths 
not  to  be  written.  It  was  an  excellent  saying;  of 
St.  Basil,  and  will  never  be  wiped  out  with  all  the 
eloquence  of  Perron,  in  his  sermon  cleFide:  '*  It 
is  a  manifest  departure  from  the  faith,  and  mere 
superciliousness,  eitker  to  reject  what  is  taught  in 
Scripture,  or  to  introduce  any  thin*;-  that  is  not 
written."!  And  it  is  but  a  poor  device  to  say, 
that  every  particular  tradition  is  consigned  in 
Scripture,  by  those  places  which  give  authority  to 
tradition;  and  so  the  introducing  of  tradition  is 
not  a  superinducing  any  thing  over  or  besides 
Scripture,  because  tradition  is  like  a  messenger, 
and  the  Scripture  is  like  his  letters  of  credence, 
and    therefore    authorizes   whatsoever    tradition 

*  Lib.  iii.  ca.  2.  Contr.  Haeres. 

I  "  Manifestus  est  fidei  lapsus,  et liquidum  superbia  vitium, 
vel  respuere  aliquid  eorum  quie  Scriptura  habet,  vel  inducere 
quicquarn  quod  Scriptum  non  est. " 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  175 

speaketli.  For  supposing  Scripture  does  consign 
the  authority  of  tradition  (which  it  might  do  before 
all  the  whole  instrument  of  Scripture  itself  was 
consigned,  and  then  afterwards  there  might  be  no 
need  of  tradition),  yet  supposing  it,  it  will  follow 
that  all  those  traditions  which  are  truly  prime  and 
apostolical,  are  to  be  entertained  according  to  the 
intention  of  the  deliverers;  which,  indeed,  is  so 
reasonable  of  itself,  that  we  need  not  Scripture  to 
persuade  us  to  it :  itself  is  authentic  as  Scripture 
is,  if  it  derives  from  the  same  fountain ;  and  the 
word  is  never  the  more  the  Word  of  God  for  being 
written ;  nor  the  less  for  not  being  written :  but 
it  will  not  follow  that  whatsoever  is  pretended  to 
be  tradition,  is  so ;  neither  in  the  credit  of  the 
particular  instances  consigned  in  Scripture,  et 
dolosus  vcrsafur  in  generalibics  :'^  but  that  this  craft 
is  too  palpable.  And  if  a  general  and  indefinite 
consignation  of  tradition  be  sufficient  to  warrant 
every  particular  that  pretends  to  be  tradition,  then 
St.  Basil  had  spoken  to  no  purpose,  by  saying  it 
is  pride  and  apostacy  from  the  faith,  to  bring  in 
what  is  not  written  :  for  if  either  any  man  brings 
in  what  is  written,  or  what  he  says  is  delivered, 
then  the  first  being  express  Scripture,  and  the 
second  being  consigned  in  Scripture,  no  man  can 
be  charged  with  superinducing  what  is  not  written ; 
he  hath  his  answer  ready;  and  then  these  are 
zealous  words  absolutely  to  no  purpose;  but  if 
such  general  consignation  does  not  warrant  every 
thing  that  pretends  to  tradition,  but  only  such  as 
are  truly  proved  to  be  apostolical,  then  Scripture 
is  useless  as  to  this  particular ;  for  such  tradition 
gives  testimony  to  Scripture,  and  therefore  is  of 

*  "  He  who  wishes  to  deceive,  occupies  himself  in  generali- 
ties." 


176  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

itself  first,  and  more  credible,  for  it  is  credible  of 
itself;  and  therefore,  unless  St.  Basil  thought  that 
all  the  will  of  God  in  matters  of  faith  and  doctrine 
were  written,  T  see  not  what  end  nor  what  sense 
he  could  have  in  these  words :  for  no  man  in  the 
vv^orld,  except  enthusiasts  and  mad  men,  ever 
obtruded  a  doctrine  upon  the  church,  but  he  pre- 
tended Scripture  for  it,  or  tradition  ;  and  therefore 
no  man  could  be  pressed  by  these  v/ords,  no  man 
confuted,  no  man  instructed,  no  not  enthusiasts 
or  Montanists.  For  suppose  either  ofthem  should 
sav,  that  since  in  Scripture  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
promised  to  abide  with  the  churcli  for  ever,  to 
teach  wliatever  they  pretend  the  Spirit  in  any  age 
hath  taught  them  is  not  to  superinduce  any  thing 
beyond  what  is  written,  because  the  truth  of  the 
Spirit,  his  veracity,  and  his  perpetual  teaching 
being  promised  and  attested  in  Scripture,  Scrip- 
ture hath  just  so  consigned  all  such  revelations, 
as  Perron  saith  it  hath  all  such  traditions.  But  I 
will  trouble  myself  no  more  with  arguments  from 
any  human  authorities:  but  he  that  is  surprised 
with  the  belief  of  such  authorities,  and  will  but 
consider  the  very  many  testimonies  of  antiquity  to 
this  purpose,  as  of  Constantine,*  St.  Jerome,t  St. 
Austin.^  St.  Athanasius,§  St.  Hilary,!!  St.  Epipha- 
nius,^  and  divers  others,  all  speaking  words  to  the 
same  sense  with  that  saying  of  St.  Paul,*^"  'Let 
no  man  be  wise  above  vv^hat  is  Vv'ritten,'  will  see 
that  there  is  reason,  that  since  no  man  is  materially 
a  heretic,  but  he  that  errs  in  a  point  of  faith,  and 
all  faith  is  sufficiently  recorded  in  Scripture,  the 

*  Orat.  ad  Nicen.  PP.  apud.  Theodor.  lib.  i.  c.  7. 

t  In  Matth.  lib.  iv.  c.  23,  et  in  Aggoeiim. 

X  Be  Bono  Yiduil.  c.  i.  §  Orat.  contr.  Gent. 

11  In  Psal.  cxxxii. 

11  Lib.  ii .  Contra  Haeres.  tom.i.  Ha?r.  61.       **  1  Cor.  4. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROFHESiYING.  17T 

judgment  of  faith  and  heresy  is  to  be  derived  from 
thence,  and  no  man  is  to  be  condemned  for  dis- 
senting in  an  article  for  whose  probation  tradition 
only  is  pretended  ;  only,  according  to  the  degree 
of  its  evidence,  let  every  one  determine  himself: 
but  of  this  evidence  we  must  not  judge  for  others; 
for  unless  it  be  in  things  of  faith,  and  absolute 
certainties,  evidence  is  a  word  of  relation,  and  so 
supposes  two  terms,  the  object  and  the  faculty ;  and 
it  is  an  imperfect  speech,  to  say  a  thing  is  evident 
in  itself  (unless  we  speak  of  first  principles,  or 
clearest  revelations),  for  that  may  be  evident  to 
one  that  is  not  so  to  another,  by  reason  of  the 
pregnancy  of  some  apprehensions,  and  the  imma- 
turity of  others. 

This  discourse  hath  its  intention  in  traditions, 
doctrinal  and  ritual ;  that  is,  such  traditions  which 
propose  articles  essentially  new;  but,  now,  if 
Scripture  be  the  repository  of  all  divine  truths 
sufficient  for  us,  tradition  must  be  considered  as 
its  instrument,  to  convey  its  great  mysteriousness 
to  our  understandings.  It  is  said,  there  are 
traditive  interpretations,  as  well  as  traditive 
propositions;  but  these  have  not  nmcli  distinct 
consideration  in  them,  both  because  their  uncer- 
tainty is  as  great  as  the  other,  upon  the  former 
considerations;  as  also,  because,  in  very  deed, 
there  are  no  such  things  as  traditive  interpretations 
universal :  for  as  for  particulars,  they  signify  no 
more  but  that  they  are  not  sufficient  determinations 
of  questions  theological ;  therefore,  because  they 
are  particular,  contingent,  and  of  infinite  variety, 
and  they  are  no  more  argument  than  the  particular 
authority  of  those  men  whose  commentaries  they 
are,  and,  therefore,  must  be  considered  with  them. 

The  sum  is  this  :  since  the  fathers  who  are  the 


ITS  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

best  witnesses  of  traditions,  jet  were  infinitely 
deceived  in  their  account ;  since  sometimes  they 
guessed  at  them,  and  conjectured,  bj  way  of  rule 
and  discourse,  and  not  of  their  knowledge,  not  by 
evidence  of  the  thing  since  many  are  called  tra- 
ditions which  were  not  so,  many  are  uncertain 
whether  they  were  or  no,  yet  confidently  pre- 
tended ;  and  this  uncertainty,  v/hich  at  first  was 
great  enough,  is  increased  by  infinite  causes  and 
accidents,  in  the  succession  of  sixteen  hundred 
years  ;  since  the  church  hath  been  either  so  care- 
less or  so  abused,  that  she  could  not,  or  would 
not,  preserve  traditions  with  carefulness  and  truth, 
since  it  was  ordinary  for  the  old  writers  to  set  out 
their  own  fancies,  and  the  rites  of  their  church, 
which  had  been  ancient,  under  the  spacious  title 
of  apostolical  ti^aditions;  since  some  traditions 
rely  but  upon  single  testimony  at  first,  and  yet 
descending  upon  others,  come  to  be  attested  by 
many,  whose  testimony,  though  conjunct,  yet  in 
value  is  but  single,  because  it  relies  upon  the  first 
single  relater,and  so  can  have  no  greater  authority, 
or  certainty,  than  they  derive  from  the  single 
person  ;  since  the  first  ages,  who  were  most  com- 
petent to  consign  tradition,  yet  did  consign  such 
traditions  as  be  of  a  nature  wholly  discrepant  from 
the  present  questions,  and  speak  nothing  at  all,  or 
very  imperfectly,  to  our  purposes,  and  the  follow- 
ing ages  are  no  fit  witnesses  of  that  which  wr.s  not 
transmitted  to  them,  because  they  could  not  know 
it  at  all,  but  by  such  transmission  and  prior  con- 
signation ;  since  what  at  first  was  a  tradition,  came 
afterwards  to  be  written,  and  so  ceased  its  being 
a  tradition,  yet  the  credit  of  traditions  commenced 
upon  the  certainty  and  reputation  of  those  truths 
first  delivered  by  word,  afterward  consigned  by 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  179 

writing;  since,  what  was  certainly  tradition  apos- 
tolical, as  many  rituals  were,  is  rejected  by  the 
church,  in  several  ages,  and  is  gone  out  into  a  de- 
suetude; and  lastly,  since,  beside  the  no  necessity 
of  traditions,  there  being  abundantly  enough  in 
Scripture,  there  are  many  things  called  traditions 
by  the  fathers,  wJiich  they  themselves  either 
proved  by  no  authors,  or  by  apocryphal  and 
spurious,  and  heretical, — the  matter  of  tradition 
will,  in  very  much,  be  so  uncertain,  so  false,  so 
suspicious,  so  contradictory,  so  improbable,  so 
unproved,  that  if  a  question  be  contested,  and  be 
offered  to  be  proved  only  oj  tradition,  it  will  be 
very  hard  to  impose  such  a  proposition  to  the 
belief  of  all  men,  with  any  imperiousness  or  re- 
solved determination ;  but  it  will  be  necessary 
men  should  preserve  the  liberty  of  believing  and 
prophesying,  and  not  part  with  it,  upon  a  worse 
merchandize  and  exchange  than  Esau  made  for 
his  birth -right. 


180  THE  SACRED  CLAbSIC; 


SECTION  VI. 

Of  the  uncertainty  and  insufficiency  of  Councils 
Ecclesiastical  to  the  same  purpose. 

But  since  we  are  all  this  while  in  uncertainty^ 
it  is  necessary  that  we  should  address  ourselves 
somewhere,  where  we  may  rest  the  sole  of  our 
foot :  and  nature,  Scripture,  and  experience,  teach 
the  world,  in  matters  of  question,  to  submit  to 
some  final  sentence.  For  it  is  not  reason,  that 
controversies  should  continue  till  the  erring  person 
shall  be  willing  to  condemn  himself;  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  hath  directed  us,  by  that  great  pre- 
cedent at  Jerusalem,  to  address  ourselves  to  the 
church  that  in  a  plenary  council  and  assembly  she 
may  synodically  determine  controversies.  So  that, 
if  a  general  council  have  determined  a  question, 
or  expounded  Scripture,  we  may  no  more  dis- 
believe the  decree  than  the  Spirit  of  God  himself 
who  speaks  in  them.  And,  indeed,  if  all  assem- 
blies of  bishops  were  like  that  first,  and  all 
bishops  were  of  the  same  spirit  of  which  the 
apostles  were,  I  should  obey  their  decree  with 
the  same  religion  as  I  do  them  whose  preface  was, 
"It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us  :" 
and  I  doubt  not  but  our  blessed  Savior  intended 
that  the  assemblies  of  the  church  should  be  judges 
of  controversies,  and  guides  of  our  persuasions,  in 
matters  of  difficulty.  But  he  also  intended  they 
should  proceed  according  to  his  will,  vv^hich  he  had 
revealed,   and   those  precedents  which  he  had 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  181 

made  authentic  by  the  immediate  assistance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit:  he  hath  done  his  part,  but  we  do  not 
do  ours ;  and  if  any  private  person,  in  the  sim- 
plicity and  purity  of  his  soul,  desires  to  find  out 
a  truth,  of  which  he  is  in  search  and  inquisition,  if 
he  prays  for  wisdom,  we  have  a  promise  he  shall 
be  heard  and  answered  liberally;  and  therefore 
much  more  when  the  representatives  of  the  catholic 
church  do  meet,  because  every  person  there  hath, 
as  an  individual,  a  title  to  the  promise,  and 
another  title,  as  he  is  a  governor  and  a  guide  of 
souls,  and  all  of  them  together  have  another  title 
in  their  united  capacity,  especially,  if  in  that 
union  they  pray,  and  proceed  with  simplicity  and 
purity.  So  that  there  is  no  disputing  against  the 
pretence,  and  promises,  and  authority  of  general 
councils:  for  if  any  one  man  can, hope  to  be 
guided  by  God's  Spirit  in  the  search,  the  pious, 
and  impartial,  and  unprejudicate  search  of  truth, 
then  much  more  may  a  general  council.  If  no 
private  man  can  hope  for  it,  tiien  trutii  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  be  found,  nor  we  are  not  obliged  to 
search  for  it,  or  else  we  are  saved  by  chance ;  but 
if  private  men  can,  by  virtue  of  a  promise,  upop 
certain  conditions,  be  assured  of  finding  out  suiTi- 
cient  truth,  much  more  shall  a  general  council. 
So  that  I  consider  thus  : — there  are  many  promises 
pretended  to  belong  to  general  assemblies  in  the 
church ;  but  I  know  not  any  ground,  nor  any  pre- 
tence, that  they  shall  be  absolutely  assisted,  with- 
out any  condition  on  their  own  parts,  and  whether 
they  will  or  no ;  faith  is  a  virtue  as  well  as  charity, 
and  therefore  consists  in  liberty  and  choice,  and 
hath  nothing  in  it  of  necessity.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion but  that  they  are  obliged  to  proceed  according 
to  some  rule ;  for  they  expect  no  assistance,  by 
16 


182  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

way  of  enthusiasm;  if  they  should,  I  know  no 
warrant  for  that;  neither  did  any  general  council 
ever  offer  a  decree  which  they  did  not  think  suffi- 
ciently proved  by  Scripture,  reason,  or  tradition, 
as  appears  in  the  acts  of  the  councils.  Now,  then, 
if  they  be  tied  to  conditions,  it  is  their  duty  to 
observe  them ;  but  whether  it  be  certain  that  they 
will  observe  them,  tliat  they  will  do  all  their  duty, 
that  they  vv'ill  not  sin,  even  in  this  particular,  in 
the  neglect  of  their  duty,  that  is  the  consideration. 
So  that  if  any  man  questions  the  title  and  au- 
thority of  general  councils,  and  whether  or  no 
great  promises  appertain  to  them,  1  suppose  him 
to  be  much  mistaken  ;  but  lie  also  that  thinks  all 
of  them  have  proceeded  according  to  rule  and 
reason,  and  that  none  of  them  were  deceived, 
because,  possibly,  they  might  have  been  truly 
directed,  is  a  stranger  to  the  history  of  the  church, 
and  to  the  perpetual  instances  and  experiments 
of  the  faults  and  failings  of  humanity.  It  is  a 
famous  saying  of  St.  Gregory,  that  he  had  the 
four  first  councils  in  esteem  and  veneration,  next 
to  the  four  evangelists:  I  suppose  it  was  because 
he  did  believe  them  to  have  proceeded  accord- 
ing to  rule,  and  to  have  judged  righteous  judg- 
ment; but  why  had  not  he  the  same  opinion  of 
other  councils  too,  which  were  celebrated  before 
his  death,  for  he  lived  after  the  fifth  general  ?  not 
because  they  had  not  the  same  authority  ;  for  that 
which  is  warrant  for  one  is  warrant  for  all ;  but 
because  he  was  not  so  confident  that  they  did 
their  duty,  nor  proceeded  so  without  interest,  as 
the  first  four  had  done  ;  and  the  following  coun- 
cils did  never  get  that  reputation  which  all  the 
catholic  church  acknov/ledged  due  to  the  first 
four.     And  in  the  next  order  were  the  three  fol- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  183 

lowing  generals ;  for  the  Greeks  and  Latins  did 
never  jointly  acknowledge  but  seven  generals  to 
have  been  authentic  in  any  sense,  because  they 
were  in  no  sense  agreed  that  any  more  than  seven 
had  procedcd  regularly  and  done  their  duty ;  so 
that  now,  the  question  is  not  whether  general 
councils  have  a  promise  that  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
assist  them  ;  for  every  private  man  hath  that  pro- 
mise, that  if  he.  does  his  duty,  he  shall  be  assisted 
sufficiently,  in  order  to  that  end  to  which  he  needs 
assistance ;  and,  therefore,  much  more  shall  ge- 
neral councils,  in  order  to  that  end  for  which 
they  convene,  and  to  which  they  need  assistance ; 
that  is,  in  order  to  the  conservation  of  the  faith, 
for  the  doctrinal  rules  of  good  life,  and  all  that 
concerns  the  essential  duty  of  a  Christian,  but 
not  in  deciding  questions  to  satisfy  contentious, 
or  curious,  or  presumptuous  spirits.  But,  now, 
can  the  bishops  so  convened  be  factious,  can  they 
be  abused  with  prejudice,  or  transported  with  in- 
terests, can  they  resist  the  Holy  Ghost,  can  they 
extinguish  the  Spirit,  can  they  stop  their  ears,  and 
serve  themselves  upon  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the 
pretence  of  his  assistances,  and  cease  to  serve  him 
upon  themselves,  by  captivating  their  understand- 
ings to  his  dictates,  and  their  wills  to  his  precepts  ? 
Is  it  necessary  they  should  perform  any  condi- 
tion ?  Is  there  any  one  duty  for  them  to  perform 
in  these  assemblies,  a  duty  which  they  have  power 
to  do  0"  not  do  ?  If  so,  then  they  may  fail  of  it, 
and  not  do  their  duty.  And  if  the  assistance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  oe  conditional,  then  we  have  no 
more  assurance  that  they  are  assisted,  than  that 
tliey  do  tlieir  duty  and  do  not  sin. 

Now,  let  us  suppose  what  this  duty  is.     Cer- 
tainly, if  the  Gospel  be  hid,  it  is  hid  to  them  that 


184  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

are  lost;  and  all  that  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  must  come  to  it  by  such  means  which 
are  spiritual  and  holy  dispositions,  in  order  to  a 
holy  and  spiritual  end.  They  must  be  shod  with 
the  preparation  of  the  Gospel  of  peace ;  that  is, 
they  must  have  peaceable  and  docible  dispositions, 
nothing  with  them  that  is  violent,  and  resolute  to 
encounter  those  gentle  and  sweet  assistances. 
And  the  rule  they  are  to  follow,  is  the  rule  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  hath  consigned  to  the  catholic 
church ;  that  is,  the  Holy  Scripture,  either  entirely, 
or,  at  least,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  rule  :*  so 
that,  now,  if  the  bishops  be  factious  and  prepos- 
sessed with  persuasions  depending  upon  interest, 
it  is  certain  they  may  judge  amiss ;  and  if  they 
recede  from  the  rule,  it  is  certain  they  do  judge 
amiss.  And  this  I  say  upon  their  grounds  who 
most  advance  the  authority  of  general  councils ; 
for  if  a  general  council  may  err,  if  a  pope  confirm 
it  not,  then,  most  certainly,  if  in  any  thing  it  recede 
from  Scripture,  it  does  also  err ;  because,  that  they 
are  to  expect  the  pope's  confirmation  they  offer  to 
prove  from  Scripture.  Now,  if  the  pope's  con- 
firmation be  required  by  authority  of  Scripture, 
and  that  therefore  the  defailance  of  it  does  evacuate 
the  authority  of  the  council,  then  also  are  the 
council's  decree  invalid,  if  they  recede  from  any 
other  part  of  Scripture :  so  that  Scripture  is  the 
rule  they  are  to  follow ;  and  a  man  would  have 
thought  it  had  been  needless  to  have  proved  it, 
but  that  we  are  fallen  into  ages  in  which  no  truth 
is  certain,  no  reason  concluding,  nor  is  there  any 
thing  that  can  convince  some  men.    For  Stapleton,t 

*  Vid.  Optat.  Milev.  lib.  v.  adv.  Paxm.  Baldvin  in  eundem. 
et  St.  August,  in  Ps.  xxi.  Expos.  2. 
t  Relect.  Controv.  iv.  q.  1.  a.  3. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  185 

with  extreme  boldness,  against  the  piety  of 
Christendom,  against  the  public  sense  of  the 
ancient  church,  and  the  practice  of  all  pious 
assemblies  of  bishops,  affirms  the  decrees  of  a 
council  to  be  binding,  "though  not  yet  confirmed 
by  the  probable  testimony  of  the  Scriptures  f  nay, 
though  it  be  quite  unauthorized  by  the  Scriptures; 
but  all  wise  and  good  men  have  ever  said  that 
sense  v/hich  St.  Hilary  expressed  in  these  words: 
"  I  will  never  defend  what  is  not  in  the  Gospel.'^t 
This  was  it  which  the  good  emperor  Constantine 
propou.ided  to  the  fathers  met  at  Nice:  "The 
Gospels,  the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  ancient 
prophets,  plainly  teach  us  what  we  ought  to  believe 
in  religion."t  And  this  is  confessed  by  a  sober 
man  of  the  Roman  church  itself,  the  cardinal  of 
Cusa:  "Whatever  we  are  bound  to  follow,  ought 
to  be  found  in  the  authorized  books  of  Scripture.''§ 
Now,  then,  all  the  advantage  I  shall  take  from 
hence,  is  this,  tliat  if  the  apostles  commended  them 
Vv'ho  examined  their  sermons  by  their  conformity 
to  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  the  men  of  Berea 
were  accounted  noble  for  searching  the  Scriptures 
whether  tliose  things  which  they  taught  were  so  or 
no,  I  suppose  it  will  not  be  denied,  but  the  coun- 
cil's decrees  may  also  be  tried  wliether  they  be 
conform  to  Scripture,  yea  or  no;  and  although  no 
man  can  take  cognizance  and  judge  tiie  decrees 

*  "Etiamsi  non  confirmetur  ne  probabili  testimonio  Scrip- 
turarum." 

t  "Quas  extra  evangelium  sunt  non  defendam." — Lib.  ii 
ad  Constant. 

X  "Libri  evangelici,  oracula  apostorum,  et  veterum  pro- 
phetannn  clare  nos  instruunt  quid  sentiendum  in  divinia." — 
Apud  Theodor.  lib.  i.  c.  7. 

§  "  Oportet  quod  omnia  talia  quae  leg:pre  debent.   contine- 
antur  in  author! tatibu 3  ^acrarum  Scripturarum." — Concord. 
Cathol.  lib.  ii.  c.  10. 
16^ 


186  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS, 

of  a  council,  as  by  public  authoritj  (pro  authori- 
tate  piiblica),  yet,  for  private  and  individual  in- 
formation (pro  mformatione  privata),  they  may ; 
the  authority  of  a  council  is  not  greater  than  the 
authority  of  the  apostles,  nor  tlieir  dictates  more 
sacred  or  authentic.  Now,  then,  put  case,  a 
council  should  recede  from  Scripture ;  whether  or 
no,  were  we  bound  to  believe  its  decrees  ?  I  only 
ask  the  question ;  for  it  were  hard  to  be  bound  to 
believe  w  hat  to  our  understandings  seems  contrary 
to  that  which  v/e  know  to  be  the  Word  of  God ; 
but  if  we  may  lawfully  recede  from  the  council's 
decrees,  in  case  they  be  contrariant  to  Scripture, 
it  is  all  that  I  require  in  this  question  :  for  if  they 
be  tied  to  a  rule ;  then  they  are  to  be  examined  and 
understood  according  to  the  rule,  and  then  we  are 
to  give  ourselves  that  liberty  of  judgment  which  is 
requisite  to  distinguish  us  from  beasts,  and  to  put 
us  into  a  capacity  of  reasonable  people,  following 
reasonable  guides.  But,  however,  if  it  be  certain 
that  the  councils  are  to  follow  Scripture,  then  if 
it  be  notorious  that  they  do  recede  from  Scripture, 
we  are  sure  we  must  obey  God  rather  than  men  ; 
and  then  we  are  well  enough.  For,  unless  we  are 
bound  to  shut  our  eyes,  and  not  to  look  upon  the 
sun,  if  we  may  give  ourselves  liberty  to  believe 
what  seems  most  plain,  and  unless  the  authority 
of  a  council  be  so  great  a  prejudice  as  to  make  us 
to  do  violence  to  our  understanding,  so  as  not  to 
disbelieve  the  decree  because  it  seems  contrary  tc 
Scripture,  but  to  believe  it  agrees  with  Scripture, 
though  we  know  not  how,  therefore,  because  the 
council  hath  decreed  it, — unless,  I  say,  we  be  bound 
in  duty  to  be  so  obediently  blind  and  sottisli,  we 
are  sure  that  there  are  some  councils  which  are 
pretended   general,  that  have   retired  from   the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  187 

public  notorious  words  and  sense  of  Scripture. 
For  what  wit  of  man  can  reconcile  the  degree  of 
the  thirteenth  session  of  the  council  of  Constance 
with  Scripture,  in  which  session  the  half-com- 
munion was  decreed,  in  defiance  of  Scripture,  and 
witli  a  non  obstante  (notwithstanding)  to  Christ's 
institution  ?  It  is  certain  Christ's  institution,  and 
the  council's  sanction  are  as  contrary  as  light  and 
darkness.  Is  it  possible  for  any  man  to  contrive 
a  way  to  make  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent, 
commanding  the  public  offices  of  the  church  to  be 
in  Latin,  friends  with  the  fourteenth  chapter  of 
the  Corinthians?  It  is  not  amiss  to  observe  how 
the  hyperaspists  of  that  council  sweat  to  answer  the 
allegations  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  wisest  of  them  do 
it  so  extremely  poor,  that  it  proclaims  to  all  the 
world,  that  the  strongest  man  that  is  cannot  eat 
iron,  or  swallow  a  rock.  Now,  then,  would  it  not 
be  an  unspeakable  tyranny  to  all  wise  persons 
(who  as  much  hate  to  have  their  souls  enslaved  as 
their  bodies  imprisoned),  to  command  them  to  be- 
lieve that  these  decrees  are  agreeable  to  the  Word 
of  God  ?  Upon  whose  understanding  soever  these 
are  imposed,  they  may,  at  the  next  session,  recon- 
cile them  to  a  crime,  and  make  any  sin  sacred,  or 
persuade  him  to  believe  propositions  contradictory 
to  a  mathematical  demonstration.  All  the  argu- 
ments in  the  world  that  can  be  brought  to  prove 
the  infallibility  of  councils,  cannot  make  it  so  cer- 
tain that  they  are  infiillible,  as  these  two  instances 
do  prove  infallibly  that  these  were  deceived ;  and 
if  ever  we  may  safely  make  use  of  our  reason,  and 
consider  whether  councils  have  erred  or  no,  we 
cannot  by  any  reason  be  more  assured,  that  they 
have  or  have  not,  than  we  have  in  these  particulars : 
so  that,  either  our  reason  is  of  no  manner  of  use  in 


188  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  discussion  of  this  question,  and  the  thing  itself 
is  not  at  all  to  be  disputed,  or  if  it  be,  we  are 
certain  that  these  actually  were  deceived,  and  we 
must  never  hope  for  a  clearer  evidence  in  any 
dispute.  And  if  these  be,  others  might  have  been, 
if  they  did  as  these  did;  that  is,  depart  from  their 
rule.  And  it  was  wisely  said  of  Cusanus,  "  The 
experience  of  it  is  notorious,  that  councils  may 
err:"*'  and  all  tlie  arguments  against  experience 
are  but  plain  sophistry. 

And,  therefore,  I  make  no  scruple  to  slight  the 
decrees  of  such  councils,  wherein  the  proceedings 
M^ere  as  prejudicate  and  unreasonable  as  in  the 
council  wherein  Abailardus  was  condemned,  wiiere 
the  presidents  having  pronounced  Damnamus^ 
they  at  the  lower  end^  being  awaked  at  the  noise, 
heard  the  latter  part  of  it,  and  concurred  as  far 
as  mnaraus  went;  and  that  was  as  good  as  dain- 
namus ;  for  if  they  had  been  awake  at  the  pro- 
nouncing the  whole  word,  they  would  have  given 
sentence  accordingly.  But,  by  this  means,  St. 
Bernard  numbered  the  major  part  of  voices  against 
his  adversary,  Abailardus  ;t  and  as  far  as  these 
men  did  do  tlieir  duty,  the  duty  of  priests  and 
judges,  and  wise  men,  so  we  may  presume  them 
to  be  assisted,  but  no  further.  But  I  am  content 
this  (because  but  a  private  assembly)  shall  pass  foi- 
no  instance.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  all  the 
Arian  councils,  celebrated  with  so  great  fancy, 
and  such  numerous  assemblies?  We  all  say 
that  they  erred.  And  it  v/ill  not  be  suflicient  to 
say  they  were  not  lawful  councils ;  for  they  were 
convened  by  that  authority  which  all  the  world 

*  "  Notandarn  est  experimento  rerum  iinivf  rsale  concilium 
posse  deficere." — Lib.  ii.  c.  14,  Concord.  Calhol, 
t  Epist.  Abailardi  ad  Heliss.     Conjugem. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  189 

knows  did,  at  that  time,  convocate  councils,  and 
by  which  (as  it  is  confessed  and  is  notorious*)  the 
first  eight  generals  did  meet;  that  is,  by  the 
authority  of  tlie  emperor,  all  were  called,  and  as 
many  and  more  did  come  to  them,  than  came  to 
the  most  famous  council  of  Nice:  so  that  the 
councils  were  lawful,  and  if  they  did  not  proceed 
lawfully,  and  therefore  did  err,  this  is  to  say,  that 
councils  are  then  not  deceived,  when  they  do  their 
duty,  when  they  judge  impartially,  when  they 
decline  interest,  when  they  follow  their  rule ;  but 
this  says,  also,  that  it  is  not  infallibly  certain  that 
they  will  do  so ;  for  these  did  not,  and  therefore 
the  others  maybe  deceived  as  weW  as  these  were. 
But  another  thing  is  in  the  wind  ;  for  councils  not 
confirmed  by  the  pope,  have  no  warrant  that  they 
shall  not  err ;  and  they,  not  being  confirmed,  there- 
fore failed.  But  whether  is  the  pope's  confirma- 
tion after  the  decree,  or  before  ?  It  cannot  be 
supposed  before ;  for  there  is  nothing  to  be 
confirmed  till  the  decree  be  made,  and  the  article 
composed.  But  if  it  be  after,  then,  possibly,  the 
pope's  decree  may  be  requisite,  in  solemnity  of 
law,  and  to  make  the  authority  popular,  public, 
and  human ;  but  the  decree  is  true  or  false  before 
the  pope's  confirmation,  and  is  not  at  all  altered 
by  the  supervening  decree,  which  being  postnate 
to  the  decree,  alters  not  what  went  before.  *'  Our 
opinion  of  a  previous  as  fact  is  not  to  be  determined 
by  a  subsequent  decree,"t  is  the  voice  both  of  law 
and  reason.  So  that  it  cannot  make  it  divine,  and 
necessary  to  be  heartily  believed.  It  may  make 
it  lawful,  not  make  it  true :  that  is,  it  may  possibly 
by  such  means  become  a  law,  but  not  a  truth.     I 

*Cusanus,  lib.  ii.  cap.  25,  Concord. 

t  "Nunquam  enim  crescit  ex  post  facto  praeteriti  aestimatio." 


190  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

Speak  now  upon  supposition  the  pope's  confirnia- 
tion  were  necessary,  and  required  to  the  making 
of  conciliarj  and  necessary  sanctions.  But  if  it 
were,  the  case  were  very  hard ;  for  suppose  a 
heresy  should  invade,  and  possess  the  chair  of 
Rome,  what  remedy  can  the  church  have  in  that 
case,  if  a  general  council  be  of  no  authority  with- 
out  the  pope  confirm  it?  Will  the  pope  confirm 
a  council  against  himself?  Will  he  condemn  his 
own  heresy?  That  the  pope  maybe  a  heretic 
appears  in  the  canon  law,*  which  says  he  may,  for 
heresy,  be  deposed ;  and  therefore,  by  a  council, 
which,  in  this  case,  hath  plenary  authorit}^  with- 
out the  pope.  And,  therefore,  in  the  synod  at 
Rome,  held  under  pope  Adrian  II.  the  censure  of 
the  sixth  synod  against  Honorius,  who  was 
convict  of  heresy,  is  approved,  with  this  appendix, 
that  in  this  case,  the  case  of  heresy,  "  inferiors 
may  judge  of  their  superiors"  (minores  possint  de 
majoribus  judicare) :  and,  therefore,  if  a  pope  were 
above  a  council,  jti  when  the  question  is  con- 
cerning heresy,  the  case  is  altered ;  the  pope  may 
be  judged  by  his  inferiors,  who,  in  this  case,  which 
is  the  main  case  of  all,  become  his  superiors. 
And  it  is  little  better  than  impudence  to  pretend 
that  all  councils  were  confirmed  by  the  pope,  or 
that  there  is  a  necessity  in  respect  of  divine 
obligation,  that  any  should  be  confirmed  by  him, 
more  than  by  another  of  the  patriarchs.  For  the 
council  of  Chalcedon  itself,  one  of  those  four 
which  St.  Gregory  did  revere  next  to  the  four 
Evangelists,  is  rejected  by  pope  Leo,  who,  in  his 
fifty-third  epistle  to  Anatolius,  and  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  to   Martian,  and  in  his  fifty-fifth  to  Pul- 

*  Dist.  xl.  Can.  si  Papa. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  191 

cheria,  accuses  it  of  ambition  and  inconsiderate 
temerity ;  and,  therefore,  no  fit  assembly  for  the 
habitation  of  the  Holy  spirit.  And  Gelasius,  in 
his  tome,  De  Vinculo  Anathematis^  affirms,  that 
the  council  is  in  part  to  be  received,  in  part  to  be 
rejected ;  and  compares  it  to  heretical  books  of  a 
mixed  matter,  and  proves  his  assertion  bj  the 
place  of  St.  Paul :  'Prove  all  things:  holdfast 
that  which  is  good;'*  and  Bellarmine  sajs  the 
same  :     "  In  the  council  of  Chalcedon  some  things 

o 

are  good,  some  bad;  some  are  to  be  received,  and 
some  rejected ;  as  is  the  case  in  regard  to  the  books 
of  heretics;"!  and  if  any  thing  be  false,  then  all 
is  questionable,  and  judicRble,  and  discerr.able, 
and  not  infallible  antecedently.  And  however 
that  couacil  hath,  ex jjost facto,  and  by  the  volun- 
tary consenting  of  after  ages,  obtained  great  repu- 
tation; yet  they  that  lived  immediately  after  it, 
that  observed  all  the  circumstances  of  the  thin":, 
and  the  disabilities  of  the  persons,  and  tiie 
uncertainty  of  the  truth  of  its  decrees,  by  -reason 
of  the  unconcludino-ness  of  the  are;uments  brouo-lit 
to  attest  it,  were  of  another  mind.  "As  to  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,  it  was  neither  openiv 
acknowledged  by  the  churches,  nor  rejected  by  all : 
for  the  authorities,  in  every  church,  were  guided 
by  their  own  judgment  ;"i  and  so  did  all  men  in 
the  world,  that  were  not  mastered  with  prejudices, 
and  undone  in  their  understanding  with   acci- 

*  De  Laicis,  lib.  iii.  c.  20.  §  ad.  hoc  ult. 

t  "In  concilio  Chalcedonensi  qusedam  sunt  bona,  qua?dam 
mala,  qucedam  recipienda,  quaedam  rejicienda ;  ita  et  in  libris 
liffireticorum." 

%  "Quod  autera  ad  concilium  Chalcedonense  attinet,  illud 
id  temporis  (viz.  Anastasii  Imp.)  neque  palam  in  ecclesiis 
.sanctissimis  prffidicalum  fuit,  neque  ab  omnibus  rejectum, 
nam  singuli  ecclesiarum  presides  pro  s!in  arbitratu  in  ea  re 
ecrerur.t.""— Evair.  lib.  iii.  c.  30. 


192  THE    SACRED   CLASSICS. 

dental  impertinences;  they  judged  upon  those 
grounds  which  they  had  and  saw,  and  suffered 
not  themselves  to  be  bound  to  the  imperious 
dictates  of  other  men,  who  are  as  uncertain  in 
their  determinations  as  others  in  their  questions. 
And  it  is  an  evidence  that  there  is  some  deception 
and  notable  error,  either  in  the  thing  or  in  the 
manner  of  their  proceeding,  when  the  decrees  of  a 
council  shall  have  no  authority  from  the  compilers, 
nor  no  strength  from  the  reasonableness  of  the 
decision,  but  from  the  accidental  approbation  of 
posterity ;  and  if  posterity  had  pleased,  Origen  iiad 
believed  well,  and  been  an  orthodox  person.  And 
it  was  pretty  sport  to  see  that  Papias  was  right 
for  two  ages  together,  and  wrong  ever  since ;  and 
just  so  it  was  in  councils,  particularly  m  this  of 
Chalcedon,  that  had  a  fate  alterable  according  to 
the  age,  and  according  to  the  climate,  which,  to 
my  understanding,  is  nothing  else  but  an  argument 
that  the  business  of  infallibility  is  a  later  device, 
and  commenced  to  serve  such  ends  as  cannot  be 
justified  by  true  and  substantial  grounds  ;  and 
that  the  pope  should  confirm  it  as  of  necessity,  is 
a  fit  cover  for  the  same  dish. 

In  the  sixth  general  council,  Honorius,  pope  of 
Rome,  was  condemned ;  did  that  council  stay  for 
the  pope's  confirmation,  before  they  set  forth  their 
decree  ?  Certainly  they  did  not  think  it  so  need- 
ful, as  that  they  would  have  suspended  or  cassated 
the  decree,  in  case  the  pope  had  then  disavowed 
it ;  for  besides  the  condemnation  of  pope  Hono- 
rius for  heresy,  the  thirteenth  and  fifty-fifth 
canons  of  that  council  are  expressly  against  the 
custom  of  the  church  of  Rome.  But  this  parti- 
cular is  involved  in  that  new  question,  whether 
the  pope  be  above  a  council.     Now,  since  the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  193 

contestation  of  this  question,  there,  was  never  any 
free  or  lawful  council  that  determined  for  the 
pope  ;  it  is  not  likely  any  should  ;  and  is  it  likely 
that  any  pope  will  coniirm  a  council  that  does 
not?  For  the  council  of  Basil  is  therefore  con- 
demned by  the  last  Lateran,*  whicli  was  an  as- 
sembly in  the  pope's  own  palace ;  and  the  council 
of  Constance  is  of  no  value  in  this  question,  and 
slighted  in  a  just  proportion,  as  that  article  is 
disbelieved.  But  I  will  not  much  trouble  the 
question  with  a  long  consideration  of  this  parti- 
cular; the  pretence  is  senseless  and  illiterate, 
against  reason  and  experience,  and  already  de- 
termined by  St.  Austin  sufficiently,  as  to  this 
particular ;  "  We  may  be  allowed  to  think  the 
bishops,  w^ho  gave  their  judgment  at  Rome,  were 
not  good  judges:  there  still  remained  the  full 
council  of  the  whole  church,  where  the  cause 
might  yet  be  discussed  with  those  judges  them- 
selves, and  their  decree  annulled,  if  they  wei-e 
convicted  of  pronouncing  a  wrong  judgment."t 
For  since  popes  may  be  parties,  may  be  Simoniacs, 
schismatics,  heretics,  it  is  against  reason  that  in 
their  own  causes  they  sliould  be  judges,  or  that  in 
any  causes  they  should  be  superior  to  their  judges. 
And  as  it  is  aga,inst  reason,  so  is  it  against  all 
experience  too ;  for  the  council  Sinuessanum  (as 
it  said)  was  convened  to  take  cognizance  of  pope 
Marcellinus;  and  divers  councils  were  held  at 
Rome  to  give  judgment  in  the  causes  of  Damasus, 
Sixtus  III,  Symmachus,  and  Leo  III,  and  IV ;  as 

*  Vid.  postea  de  Concil.  Sinuessiano.  §  6.  N.  9. 

t  "  Ecce  puteinus  illos  episcopos  qui  Romas  judicaverunt, 
non  bonos  judices  fuisse  ;  restabat  adhuc  plenarium  ecclesice 
universe  concilium,  ubi  etiam  cum  ipsis  judicibus  causa 
possit  agitari,  ut  si  male  judicasse  convicli  essent  eorum 
sententiae  solverentur."~-Epist.  xvi.  ad  Glorium. 
17 


194  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

is  to  be  seen  in  Platina,  and  the  tomes  of  tlie 
councils.  And  it  is  no  answer  to  this  and  the 
like  allegations,  to  say,  in  matters  of  fact  and 
human  constitution  the  pope  may  be  judged  by  a 
council,  but  in  matters  of  faith  all  the  world 
must  stand  to  the  pope's  determination  and  au- 
thoritative decision  ;  for  if  the  pope  can,  by  any 
color,  pretend  to  any  thing,  it  is  to  a  supreme 
judicature  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  positive  and 
of  fact ;  and  if  he  fails  in  this  pretence,  he  will 
hardly  hold  up  his  head  for  anything  else;  for 
the  ancient  bishops  derived  their  faith  from  the 
fountain,  and  held  that  in  the  highest  tenure,  even 
from  Christ  their  head;  but,  by  reason  of  the 
imperial  city,*  it  became  the  principal  seat;  and 
he  surprised  the  highest  judicature,  partly  by  the 
concession  of  others,  partly  by  his  own  accidental 
advantages;  and  yet  even  in  these  things,  al- 
though he  was  major  singulis,  ''superior  to  each 
singly,"  yet  he  v/as  minor  umversis,  "  inferior  to 
all  of  them  together."!  And  this  is  no  more  than 
what  was  decreed  of  the  eighth  general  synod; 
which,  if  it  be  sense,  is  pertinent  to  this  question  ; 
for  general  council  are  appointed  to  take  cogni- 
zance of  questions  and  differences  about  the 
bishop  of  Rome;  "not  however  to  give  sentence 
against  him  audaciously. "t  By  audi^ciously,  as 
is  supposed,  is  meant  hastily  and  unreasonably ; 
but,  if  to  give  sentence  against  him  be  wholly  for- 
bidden, it  is  nonsense;  for  to  what  purpose  is  an 
authority  of  taking  cognizance,  if  they  have  no 
power  of  giving  sentence,  unless  it  were  to  defer 
it  to  a  superior  judge,  which  in  this  case  cannot 
be  supposed  ?   for  either  the  pope  himself  is  to 

*  Vide  Concil.  Chalced.  act.  15.     f  Act.  ult.  Can,  xxi. 

*  "Nor,  tamen  audacter  in  eum  ferre  sententiam." 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  195 

judge  his  own  cause  after  their  examination  of 
him,  or  tlie  general  council  is  to  judge  him ;  so 
that  although  the  council  is,  by  that  decree,  en- 
joined to  proceed  modestly  and  warily,  yet  they 
may  proceed  to  sentence,  or  else  the  decree  is 
ridiculous  and  impertinent. 

But,  to  clear  all,  I  will  instance  in  matters  of 
question  and  opinion ;  for  not  only  some  councils 
have  made  their  decrees  without  or  against  the 
pope,  but  some  councils  have  had  the  pope's  con- 
firmation, and  yet  have  not  been  the  more  legiti- 
mate or  obligatory,  but  are  known  to  be  heretical. 
For  the  canons  of  the  sixth  synod,  although  some 
of  them  were  made  against  the  popes  and  the 
custom  of  the  church  of  Rome,  a  pope,  awhile 
after  did  confirm  the  council;  and  yet  the  canons 
are  impious  and  heretical,  and  so  esteemed  by  the 
church  of  Rome  herself.  I  instance  in  the  second 
canon,  which  approves  of  that  synod  of  Carthage ; 
under  Cyprian,  for  rebaptization  of  heretics  ;  and 
the  seventy-second  canon,  that  dissolves  marriage 
between  persons  of  differing  persuasion  in  matters 
of  Christian  religion ;  and  yet  these  canons  were 
approved  by  pope  Adrian  I,  who,  in  his  epistle  to 
Tharasius,  which  is  in  the  second  act  of  the  seventh 
synod,  calls  them  canones  divine  et  legaliter  prse- 
dicatos,  *'  canons  divinely  and  legally  ordained." 
And  these  canons  were  used  by  pope  Nicholas  I, 
in  his  epistle  ad  Michaelem.,  and  by  Innocent  III. 
So  that  now  (that  we  may  apply  this)  there  are 
seven  general  councils  which  by  the  church  of 
Rome  are  condemned  of  error : — the  council  of 
Antioch,*  A.  D.  345,  in  which  St.  Athanasius  was 
condemned  ;  the  council  of  Millain,  A.  D.  354,  of 

•  Vid.  Socra.  lib.  ii.  c.  5,  et  Sozomen.  lib.  iii.  c.  5. 


196  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

above  three  hundred  bishops;  the  council  of  Ari- 
minum,  consisting  of  six  hundred  bishops ;  the 
second  council  of  Ephesus,  A.  D.  449,  in  which 
the  Eutjchian  heresy  was  confirmed,  and  the 
patriarch  Flavianus  killed  by  the  faction  of  Dios- 
corus ;  the  council  of  Constantinople  under  Leo 
Isaurus,  A.  D.  730;  another  at  Constantinople, 
thirty-five  years  after  ;  and  lastly,  the  council  at 
Pisa,  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  since.* 
Now  that  these  general  councils  are  condemned, 
is  a  sufficient  argument  that  councils  may  err: 
and  it  is  no  answer  to  say,  they  were  not  con- 
firmed by  the  pope  ;  for  the  pope's  confirmation  I 
have  shown  not  to  be  necessary ;  or  if  it  were,  yet 
even  that  also  is  an  argument  that  general  coun- 
cils may  become  invalid,  either  by  their  own  fault, 
or  by  some  extrinsical  supervening  accident, 
either  of  which  evacuates  their  authority;  and 
whether  all  that  is  required  to  the  legitimation  of 
a  council,  was  actually  observed  in  any  council, 
is  so  hard  to  determine,  that  no  man  can  be  in- 
fallibly sure  that  such  a  council  is  authentic  and 
sufiicient  probation. 

2.  And  that  is  the  second  thing  I  shall  observe  ; 
There  are  so  many  questions  concerning  the  ef- 
ficient, the  form,  the  matter  of  general  councils, 
and  their  manner  of  proceeding,  and  their  final 
sanction,  that  after  a  question  is  determined  by  a 
conciliary  assembly,  there  are,  perhaps,  twenty 
more  questions  to  be  disputed,  before  we  can,  with 
confidence,  either  believe  the  council  upon  its  mere 
authority,  or  obtrude  it  upon  others.  And  upon 
this  ground,  how  easy  it  is  to  elude  the  pressure 

*  Gregor.  in  Regist.  lib.  iii.  caus.  7.  ait,  Concilium  Numi- 
dise  errasse.  Concilium  Aquisgrani  erravit.  De  raptore  et 
rapta  dist.  xx.  can.  de  Libeilis,  in  glossa. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  197 

of  an  argument  drawn  from  the  authority  of  a  ge- 
neral council,  is  very  remarkable  in  the  question 
about  the  pope's  or  the  council's  superiority,  which 
question,  although  it  be  defined  for  the  council 
against  the  pope  by  five  general  councils,  the 
council  of  Florence,  of  Constance,  of  Basil,  of  Pisa, 
and  one  of  the  Laterans,  yet  the  Jesuits,  to  this 
day,  account  this  question  undetermined,  and  have 
rare  pretences  for  their  escape.  As,  first;  it  is 
true  a  council  is  above  a  pope,  in  case  there  be  no 
pope,  or  he  uncertain ;  which  is  Bellarmine's  an- 
swer, never  considering  whether  he  spake  sense 
or  no,  not  yet  remembering  that  the  council  of 
Basil  deposed  Eugenius,  who  was  a  true  pope,  and 
so  acknowledged.  Secondly,  sometimes  the  pope 
did  not  confirm  these  councils ;  that  is  their 
answer:  and  although  it  was  an  exception  that 
the  fathers  never  thought  of,  when  they  were 
pressed  with  the  authority  of  the  council  of  Ari- 
minum,  or  Syrmium,  or  any  other  Arian  conven- 
tion ;  yet  the  council  of  Basil  was  convened  by 
pope  Martin  Y,  then,  in  its  sixteenth  session, 
declared  by  Eugenius  IV  to  be  lawfully  continued,^ 
and  confirmed  expressly  in  some  of  its  decrees  by 
pope  Nicholas,  and  so  stood  till  it  was  at  last 
rejected  by  Leo  X,  very  many  years  after.  But 
that  came  too  late,  and  with  too  visible  an  interest ; 
and  this  council  did  decree,  *'  that  a  council  is  to 
be  considered  as  superior  to  a  pope."*  But  if 
one  pope  confirms  it  and  another  rejects  it,  as  it 
happened  in  this  case,  and  in  many  more,  does  it 
not  destroy  the  competency  of  the  authority  ? 
And  we  see  it  by  this  instance,  that  it  so  serves 
the  turns  of  men,  that  it  is  good  in  some  cases ; 
that  is,  when  it  makes  for  them,  and  invalid  when 

*  "  Fide  Catholica  tenendum  concilium  esse  suprse  papam." 
17* 


198  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

it  makes  against  them.  Thirdly :  but  it  is  a  little 
more  ridiculous  in  the  case  of  the  council  of 
Constance,  whose  decrees  were  confirmed  by 
Martin  V.  But  that  this  may  be  no  argument 
against  them,  Bellarmine  tells  you,  he  only  con- 
firmed those  things  quse  facta  fuer ant  conciliaritery 
re  diligenter  examinata,  "  which  were  done  with 
his  concurrence,  after  his  diligent  examination  ;" 
of  which  there  being  no  mark,  nor  any  certain  rule 
to  judge  it,  it  is  a  device  that  may  evacuate  any 
thing  we  have  a  mind  to ;  it  was  not  done  concili- 
uriter,  that  is,  not  according  to  our  mind;  for 
condliariter  is  a  fine  new  nothing,  that  may  signify 
what  you  please.  Fourthly :  but  other  devices  yet 
more  pretty  they  have ;  as  whether  the  council  of 
Lateran  was  a  general  council  or  no,  they  know 
not  (no,  nor  will  not  know);  which  is  a  wise  and 
plain  reservation  of  tlieir  own  advantages,  to  make 
it  general  or  not  general,  as  shall  serve  their  turns. 
Fifthly :  as  for  the  council  of  Florence  tliey  are 
not  sure  whether  it  hath  defined  the  question 
"openly  enough,"  satis  aperte;  aperie  they  will 
grant,  if  you  will  allow  them  not  satis  aperte. 
Sixthly  and  lastly :  the  council  of  Pisa  is  ''  neither 
approved  nor  disallowed ;" *  which  is  the  greatest 
folly  of  all,  and  most  prodigious  vanity ;  so  that, 
by  something  or  other,  either  they  were  not  con- 
vened lav/fully,  or  they  did  not  proceed  condli- 
ariter, or  it  is  not  certain  that  the  council  was 
general  or  no,  or  whether  the  council  were  appro- 
batiim,  or  reprobahim  ;  or  else  it  is  partim  confir- 
matum,  partim  reprohatum  ;-\  or  else  it  is  neque 
approbatum,  neque  reprohatum ;%  by  one  of  these 

*  "Neque  approbatum  neque  reprobatum." — Bellar.  De 
Cone.  lib.  i.  c.  8. 

I  "  Partly  confinned  and  partly  disallowed." 
t  "Neither  approved  nor  yet  disallowed." 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  199 

ways,  or  a  device  like  to  these,  all  councils  and 
all  decrees  shall  be  made  to  signify  nothing,  and 
to  have  no  authority. 

3.  There  is  no  general  council  that  hath  deter- 
mined that  a  general  council  is  infallible :  no 
Scripture  hath  recorded  it ;  no  tradition  universal 
hath  transmitted  to  us  any  such  proposition ;  so 
tliat  we  must  receive  the  authority  at  a  lower  rate, 
and  upon  a  less  probability  than  the  things  con- 
signed by  that  authority.  And  it  is  strange  that 
the  decrees  of  councils  should  be  esteemed  au- 
thentic and  infallible,  and  yet  it  is  not  infallibly 
certain,  that  the  councils  themselves  are  infallible, 
because  the  belief  of  the  councils'  infallibility  is 
not  proved  to  us  by  any  medium  but  such  as  may 
deceive  us. 

4.  Sut  the  best  instance  that  councils  are  some, 
and  may  all  be  deceived,  is  the  contradiction  of 
one  council  to  another;  for  in  tiiat  case  both 
cannot  be  true,  and  which  of  them  is  true,  must 
belong  to  anotlier  judgment,  which  is  less  than  the 
solemnity  of  a  general  council ;  and  the  determin- 
ation of  this  matter  can  be  of  no  greater  certainty 
after  it  is  concluded  than  when  it  was  propounded 
as  a  question  ;  being  it  is  to  be  determined  by  the 
same  authority,  or  by  a  less  than  itself.  But  for 
this  allegation  we  cannot  want  instances :  the  council 
of  Trent*  allows  picturing  of  God  the  Father ;  the 
council  of  Nice  altogether  disallows  it :  the  same 
Nicene  council,!  which  was  the  seventh  general, 
allows  of  picturing  Christ  in  the  form  of  a  lamb ; 
but  the  sixth  synod  by  no  means  will  endure  it,  as 
Caranza  affirms.  The  council  of  Neocaesarea,± 
confirmed  by  Leo  IV.,  dist.  xx.  de  LibeUis,  and 
approved  by  the  first  Nicene  council,  as  it  is  said 

*  Sess.  XXV.  t  Act.  ii.  %  Cnn.  Ixxxii, 


SOO  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

in  the  seventh  session  of  the  council  of  Florence, 
forbids  second  marriages,  and  imposes  penances 
on  them  that  are  married  the  second  time,  forbid- 
ding priests  to  be  present  at  such  marriage  feasts ; 
besides  that  this  is  expressly  against  the  doctrine 
of  St.  Paul,  it  is  also  against  the  doctrine  of  the 
council  of  Laodicea,*  which  took  off  such  penances, 
and  pronounced  second  marriages  to  be  free  and 
lawful.  Nothing  is  more  discrepant  than  the  third 
council  of  Carthage  and  the  council  of  Laodicea, 
about  assignation  of  the  canon  of  Scripture,  and 
yet  the  sixth  general  synod  approves  both :  and  I 
would  fain  know,  if  all  general  councils  are  of  the 
same  mind  with  the  fatliers  of  the  council  of 
Carthage,  who  reckon  into  the  canon  five  books  of 
Solomon.  I  am  sure  St.  Austint  reckoned  but 
three,  and  I  think  all  Christendom  beside  are  of 
the  same  opinion.  And  if  we  look  into  the  title 
of  the  law  de  conciliis  called  Concordcmiia  dis- 
cGrdantianim,  we  sliall  find  instances  enough  to 
confirm,  tliat  the  decrees  of  some  councils  are 
contradictory  to  others,  and  that  no  wit  can 
reconcile  them :  and  whether  they  did  or  no,  that 
they  might  disagree,  and  former  councils  be 
corrected  by  later,  was  the  belief  of  the  doctors 
in  those  ages  in  which  the  best  and  most  fauious 
councils  were  convened ;  as  appears  in  that  famous 
saying  of  St.  Austin,  speaking  concerning  the 
rebaptizingof  heretics ;  and  how  much  the  Africans 
were  deceived  in  that  question,  he  ansv/ers  the 
allegation  of  the  bishops'  letters,  and  those  national 
councils  w^hich  confirmed  St.  Cyprian's  opinion, 
by  saying,  that  they  were  no  final  determination. 
.Not  only  the  occasion  of  the  question,  being  a 
matter  not  of  fact  but  of  faith,  as  being  instanced 
*  Cap.  1.  t  Lib.  xvii.  De  Cul,  Dei,  c.  20. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  201 

in  the  question  of  rebaptization,  but  also  the  very 
fabric  and  economy  of  the  words,  put  by  all  the 
answers  of  those  men  who  think  themselves  pressed 
with  the  authority  of  St.  Austin.  "  For,  as 
national  councils  may  correct  the  bishops'  letters, 
and  general  councils  may  correct  national,  so  the 
later  general  may  correct  the  former  ;"*  that  is,  have 
contrary  and  better  decrees  of  manners,  and  better 
determinations  in  matters  of  faith.  And  from  hence 
hath  risen  a  question,  whether  is  to  be  received  the 
former  or  the  later  councils,  in  case  they  contradict 
each  other.  The  former  are  nearer  the  fountains 
apostolical,  the  later  are  of  greater  consideration ; 
the  first  have  more  authority,  the  later  more  reason ; 
the  first  are  more  venerable,  the  later  more  inquisi- 
tive and  seeing.  And,  now,  what  rule  shall  we  have 
to  determine  our  beliefs,  whether  to  authority  or 
reason ;  the  reason  and  the  authority  both  of  them 
not  being  the  highest  in  their  kind,  both  of  them 
being  repudiable,  and  at  most  but  probable  ?  And 
here  it  is  that  this  great  uncertainty  is  such  as  not 
to  determine  any  body,  but  fit  to  serve  every  body : 
and  it  is  sport  to  see  that  Bellarminet  will,  by  all 
means,  have  the  council  of  Carthage  preferred 
before  the  council  of  Laodicea,  because  it  is  later; 
and  yet  he  prefers  the  second  Nicene  council| 
before  the  council  of  Frankfort,  because  it  is  elder. 
St.  Austin  would  have  the  former  generals  to  be 
mended  by  the  later;  but  Isidore,  in  Gratian  says, 
"  When  councils  do  differ,  the  elder  must  carry 
it:"§  and  indeed  these  probables  are  buskins  to 

*  "  EpiscoporuiD  lilerce  emendaripossunta  conciliis  nation- 
alibus,  concilia  nationalia  a  plenariis,  ipsaque  plenaria  priora 
a  posterioribus  emendari."' — Lib.  ii.  De  Bapt.  Donat.  c.  3. 

t  Lib.  ii.  De  Cone.  c.  8,  §  Respondeo  in  primis. 

X  Ibid.  §  De  Conciiio  autem. 

>$>  Dist.  XX.  Can.  Domino  Sancto. 


202  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

serve  every  foot;  and  thej  are  like  magnum  et 
parvwn,  thej  have  nothing  of  tlieir  own,  all  that 
they  have  is  in  comparison  of  others :  so  these 
topics  have  nothing  of  resolute  and  dogmatical 
truth,  but  in  relation  to  such  ends  as  an  interested 
person  hath  a  mind  to  serve  upon  them. 

5.  There  are  many  councils  corrupted,  and  many 
pretended  and  alleged,  when  there  were  no  such 
things ;  both  which  make  the  topic  of  the  authority 
of  councils  to  be  little  and  inconsiderable.  There 
is  a  council  brought  to  light,  in  the  editions  of 
councils,  by  Binius,  viz.  Sinuessanum,  pretended 
to  be  kept  in  the  year  303  ;  but  it  was  so  private 
till  then,  that  we  find  no  mention  of  it  in  any 
ancient  record;  neither  Eusebius,  nor  Rufinus, 
St.  Jerome,  nor  Socrates,  Sozomen,  nor  Theo- 
doret,  nor  Eutropius,  nor  Bede,  knew  any  thing  of 
it ;  and  the  eldest  allegation  of  it  is  by  pope 
Nicholas  I,  in  the  ninth  century.  And  he  that 
shall  consider,  that  three  hundred  bishops,  in  the 
midst  of  horrid  persecutions  (for  so  then  they 
were),  are  pretended  to  have  convened,  will  need 
no  greater  argument  to  suspect  tlie  imposture : 
besides,  he  that  was  the  framer  of  the  engine  did 
not  lay  his  ends  together  handsomely ;  for  it  is 
said,  that  the  deposition  of  Marcellinus,  by  the 
synod,  was  told  to  Diocletian  when  he  was  in  tlie 
Persian  war;  whereas  it  is  known,  before  that 
time  he  had  returned  to  Rome,  and  triumphed  for 
his  Persian  conquest,  as  Eusebius  in  his  chronicle 
reports :  and  this  is  so  plain  that  Binius  and  Baro- 
nius  pretend  the  text  to  be  corrupted,  and  so  go 
to  mend  it  by  such  an  emendation  as  is  a  plain 
contradiction  to  the  sense,  and  that  so  unclerk- 
like,  viz.  by  putting  in  two  words  and  leaving  out 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  203 

one  ;*  which,  whether  it  may  be  allowed  them  by 
any  licence  less  than  poetical,  let  critics  judge. 
St.  Gregory  saith,t  that  the  Constantinopolitans 
had  corrupted  the  synod  of  Chalcedon,  and  that 
he  suspected  the  same  concerning  the  Ephesine 
council :  and,  in  the  fifth  synod,  there  was  a  noto- 
rious prevarication,  for  there  were  false  epistles 
of  pope  Vigilius  and  Menna.  the  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, inserted ;  and  so  they  passed  for 
authentic  till  they  were  discovered  in  the  sixth 
general  synod.  Actions  xii.  and  xiv.  And  not 
only  false  decrees  and  actions  may  creep  into  the 
codes  of  councils,  but  sometimes  the  authority  of 
a  learned  man  may  abuse  the  church  with  pre- 
tended decrees,  of  Avhich  there  is  no  copy  or 
shadow  in  the  code  itself:  and  thus  Thomas 
Aquinas  says,|  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
w^as  reckoned  in  the  canon  by  the  Nicene  council ; 
no  shadow  of  which  appears,  in  those  copies  we 
now  have  of  it;  and  this  pretence  and  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  man  prevailed  so  far  with  Melchior 
Canus,  the  learned  bishop  of  the  Canaries,  that 
he  believed  it  upon  this  ground,  "that  so  holy  a 
man  would  not  have  asserted  such  a  thing,  if  he 
had  not  been  fully  assured  of  it  :"||  and  there  are 
many  things  whi-U  have  prevailed  upon  less  reason 
and  a  more  slight  authority.  And  that  very 
council  of  Nice  hath  not  only  been  pretended  by 
Aquinas,  but  very  much   abused  by  others  ;  and 

*  Pro,  Cum  esset  in  bello  Persarum,  leoji  volunt,  Cum 
reversus  esset  a  bello  Persarum. — Euseb.  Chronicon,  vide 
Biniura  in  Notis  ad  Concil.  Sinuessanum.  torn.  i.  Concil.  et 
Baron.  Anna!,  torn.  iii.  A.  D.  303.  num.  107. 

t  Lib.  V.  Ep.  14,  ad  Narsem. 

X  Comment,  in  Hebr. 

II  "  Vir  sanctus  rem  adeo  gravem  non  astrueret.  nisi  com- 
pertum  habuisset." 


204  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

its  authority  and  great  reputation  hath  made  it 
more  liable  to  the  fraud  and  pretences  of  idle 
people :  for  whereas  the  Nicene  fathers  made  but 
twenty  canons,  for  so  many  and  no  more  were 
rec-eived  by  Cecilian^  of  Carthage,  that  was  at 
Nice  in  tlie  council ;  by  St.  Austint  and  two  hun- 
dred African  Bishops  with  him  ;  by  St.  Cyril  ±  of 
Alexandria  :||  by  Atticus  of  Constantinople  ;§  by 
Ruffinus,  Isidore,  and  Theodoret,  as  Baronius*)] 
witnesses :  yet  there  are  fourscore  lately  found 
out,  in  an  Arabian  manuscript,  and  published  in 
Latin  by  Turrian  and  Alfonsus  of  Pisa,  Jesuits 
surely,  and  like  to  be  masters  of  the  mint.  And 
.not  only  the  canons,  but  the  very  acts  of  the 
Nicene  councils  are  false  and  spurious,  and  are  so 
confessed  by  Baronius  ;  though  how  he  and  Lin- 
danus**  will  be  reconciled  upon  the  point,  I  neither 
know  well  nor  much  care.  Now,  if  one  council 
be  corrupted,  we  see,  by  the  instance  of  St. 
Gregory,  that  another  may  be  suspected,  and  so 
all ;  because  he  found  the  council  of  Chalcedon 
corrupted,  he  suspected  also  the  Ephesine ;  and 
another  might  have  suspected  more,  for  the  Nicene 
was  tampered  foully  with;  and  so  three  of  the 
four  generals  were  sullied  and  made  suspicious, 
and  therefore  we  could  not  be  secure  of  any.  If 
false  acts  ])e  inserted  in  one  council,  who  can 
trust  the  actions  of  any,  unless  he  had  the  keep- 
ing the  records  himself,  or  durst  swear  for  the 
register  ?  And  if  a  very  learned  man  (as  Thomas 
Aquinas  was)  did  eitlier  willfully  deceive  us,  or 

*  Con.  Carthag.  vi.  c.  9.  f  Con.  African. 

X  Ibid.  c.  102,  et  c.  133.  i|  Lib.  i.  Eccl.  Hist.  c.  6. 

"^Nln  Princ.  Con.  de  Synod.  Princ. 

•ff  Baronius,  torn.  iii..  A.  D.  325.  n.  156.  torn.  iii.  ad  A.  D 
325.  n.  62,  63. 

**Pampl.  lib.  ii.  c.  6. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  205 

was  himself  ignorantly  abused,  in  allegation  of  a 
canon  which  was  not,  it  is  but  a  very  fallible  topic 
at  the  best,  and  the  most  holy  man  that  is  may  be 
abused  himself,  and  the  wisest  may  deceive 
others. 

6.  And,  lastly ;  To  all  this  and  to  the  former 
instances,  by  way  of  corollary,  I  add  some  more 
particulars,  in  which  it  is  notorious  that  councils 
general  and  national,  that  is,  such  as  were  either 
general  by  original,  or  by  adoption  into  the  canon 
of  the  catholic  church,  did  err,  and  were  actually 
deceived.  The  first  council  of  Toledo  admits  to 
the  communion  him  that  hath  a  concubine,  so  he 
have  no  wife  besides;  and  this  council  is  approved 
by  pope  Leo,  in  the  ninety-second  epistle  to  Rus- 
ticus,  bishop  of  Narbona :  Gratian  says,*  that  the 
council  means  by  a  concubine,  a  Vvife  married 
"  without  a  portion  and  due  solemnity,"  6'i??e  dote 
et  solennitate:  but  this  is  daubing  with  untem- 
pered  mortar.  For,  though  it  was  a  custom 
amongst  the  Jews  to  distinguish  wives  from  their 
concubines  by  dowry  and  legal  solemnities,  ^^'0,1  the 
Christian  distinguished  them  no  otherwise  than 
as  lawful  and  unlawful,  than  as  chastity  and  for- 
nication. And,  besides,  if  by  a  concubine  is 
meant  a  lawful  wife  without  a  dowry,  to  what 
purpose  should  the  council  make  a  law  that  such 
a  one  might  be  admitted  to  the  communion  ?  for 
I  suppose  it  was  never  thought  to  be  a  law  of 
Christianity,  that  a  man  should  have  a  portion 
with  his  wife,  nor  he  that  married  a  poor  virgin 
should  deserve  to  be  excommunicate.  So  that 
Gratian  and  his  followers  are  pressed  so  with  this 
canon,  that,  to  avoid  the  impiety  of  it,  they  ex- 

*  Diat.  xxxiv.  Can.  omnibus 


£06  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

pound  it  to  a  signification  without  sense  or  pur- 
pose. But  the  business  then  was,  that  adultery 
was  so  public  and  notorious  a  practice,  that  the 
council  did  choose  rather  to  endure  simple  forni- 
cation, that  by  such  permission  of  a  less,  they 
might  slacken  the  public  custom  of  a  greater; 
just  as  at  Rome  they  permit  stews,  to  prevent 
unnatural  sins:  but  that,  by  a  public  sanction, 
fornicators,  habitually  and  notoriously  such,  should 
be  admitted  to  the  holy  communion,  was  an  a,ct  of 
priests  so  unfit  for  priests  that  no  excuse  can  make 
it  white  or  clean.  The  council  of  Wormes  ■■  does 
authorize  a  superstitious  custom,  at  that  time  too 
much  used,  of  discovering  stolen  goods  by  the 
holy  sacrament,  which  Aquinast  justly  condemns 
for  superstition.  The  sixth  synodt  separates 
persons  lawfully  married,  upon  an  accusation  and 
crime  of  heresy.  The  Roman  council,  under  Pope 
Nicholas  II, §  defined,  that  not  only  the  sacrament 
of  Christ's  body,  but  the  very  body  itself  of  our 
blessed  Savior  is  handled  and  broke  by  the  liancis 
of  the  priest,  and  chewed  by  the  teeth  of  the  com- 
municants; which  is  a  manifest  error,  derogatory 
from  the  truth  of  Christ's  beatifical  resurrection, 
and  glorification  in  the  heavens,  and  disavowed 
by  the  church  of  Rome  itself;  but  Bellarmine,^ 
that  answers  all  the  arguments  in  the  world, 
whether  it  be  possible  or  not  possible,  M'ould  fain 
make  the  matter  fair,  and  the  decree  tolerable; 
for,  says  he,  the  decree  means  that  the  body  is 
broken  not  in  itself  but  in  sign  :  and  yet  the 
decree  says,  that  not  only  the  sacrament  (wb.ich, 
if  any  thing  be,  is  certainly  the  sign)  but  the  very 

*  Cap.  3.     t  Part.  iii.  q.  SO,  a.  6.  ad  3.  m.     \  Can.  Ixxii. 
§  Can.  ego  Berengar,  de  Consecrat.  dist.  ii. 
Tf  Lib.  h  c.  e,  De  Concil. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  207 

body  itself  is  broken  and  champed,  with  hands 
and  teeth  respectively  ;  which  indeed  was  nothing 
but  a  plain  overacting  the  article,  in  contradiction 
to  Berengarius.  And  the  answer  of  Bellarraine 
is  not  sense,  for  he  denies  that  the  body  itself  is 
broken  in  itself  (that  w^as  the  error  we  charged 
upon  the  Roman  synod),  and  the  sign  abstracting 
from  the  body  is  not  broken  (for  that  was  the 
opinion  that  the  council  condemned  in  Berenga- 
rius), but,  says  Bellarmine,  the  body  in  the  sign  : 
What  is  that  ?  for  neither  the  sign,  nor  the  body, 
nor  both  together  are  broken ;  for  if  either  of 
them  distinctly,  they  either  rush  upon  the  error 
which  the  Roman  synod  condemned  in  Berenga- 
rius, or  upon  that  which  they  would  fain  excuse 
in  pope  Nicholas.  But  if  both  are  broken,  then 
it  is  true  to  affirm  it  of  either ;  and  then  the  coun- 
cil is  blasphemous  in  saying,  that  Christ's  glorified 
body  is  passible  and  frangible  by  natural  mandu- 
cation  ;  so  that  it  is  and  it  is  not;  it  is  not  this 
way,  and  yet  it  is  no  way  else :  but  it  is  some 
way,  and  they  know  not  how ;  and  tlie  council 
spoke  blasphemy,  but  it  must  be  made  innocent, 
and  therefore  it  was  requisite  a  cloud  of  a  distinc- 
tion should  be  raised,  that  the  unwary  reader 
might  be  amused,  and  the  decree  scape  untouched, 
but  the  truth  is,  they  that  undertake  to  justify  all 
that  other  men  say,  must  be  more  subtle  than 
they  that  said  it,  and  must  use  such  distinctions 
which  possibly  the  first  authors  did  not  under- 
stand. But  I  will  multiply  no  more  instances ; 
for  what  instance  soever  I  shall  bring,  some  or 
other  will  be  answering  it;  which  thing  is  so  far 
from  satisfying  me  in  the  particulars,  that  it 
increases  the  difficulty  in  the  general,  and  satisfies 
me  in  my  first  belief:  for,  if  no  decrees  of  coun- 


208  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

cils  can  make  against  them,*  though  they  seem 
never  so  plain  against  them,  then  let  others  be 
allowed  the  same  liberty  (and  there  is  all  the 
reason  in  the  world  they  should),  and  no  decree 
shall  conclude  against  any  doctrine,  that  they 
have  already  entertained ;  and  by  this  means  the 
church  is  no  fitter  instrument  to  decree  controver- 
sies than  the  Scripture  itself,  there  being  as  much 
obscurity  and  disputing  in  the  sense,  and  the 
manner,  and  the  degree,  and  the  competency,  and 
the  obligation  of  the  decree  of  a  council,  as  of  a 
place  of  Scripture.  And  what  are  we  the  nearer 
for  a  decree,  if  any  sophister  shall  think  his  illusion 
enough  to  contest  against  the  authority  of  a  council. 
Yet  this  they  do  that  pretend  highest  for  their  au- 
thority; which  consideration,  or  some  like  it, 
might  possibly  make  Gratiant  prefer  St.  Jerome's 
single  testimony  before  a  whole  council,  because 
he  had  Scripture  of  his  side;  which  says,  that 
the  authority  of  councils  is  not  duroTna-Toc  (de- 
serving; of  credit  and  confidence  on  its  own 
account),  and  that  councils  may  possibly  recede 
from  their  rule,  from  Scripture ;  and,  in  that  case, 
a  single  person,  proceeding  according  to  rule,  is  a 
better  argument ;  which  indeed  was  the  saying  of 
Panormitan :  "  In  matters  of  faith,  the  opinion  of 
a  single  individual  is  preferable  to  the  dictate  of 
a  pope,  or  of  a  whole  council,  if  he  be  guided  in 
his  decision  by  better  arguments.''^ 

*  Ilia  demum  eis  videntur  edicta  et  concilia  quce  in  rem 
suam  faciunt ;  reliqua  non  pluris  aestimant  quam  conventum 
muliercularum  in  textrina  vel  thermis, — Lud.  Vives  in  Scho- 
liis,  lib.  XX.  Aug.  de  Civit.  Dei.  c.  26. 

t  36.  q.  2.  c.  placuit. 

X  "  In  concernentibus  fidem  etiam  dictum  unins  privati 
esset  dicto  papae  aut  totius  concilii  praeferendum,  si  ille  move- 
letur  melioribus  argumentis." — Part  I.  De  Election,  et  Elect, 
potest,  cap.  significasti. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  209 

I  end  this  discourse  with  representing  the  words 
of  Gregory  Nazianzen,  in  his  epistle  to  Procopius : 
"  To  say  the  truth,  such  is  mv  feeling,  that  I  would 
shun  all  the  episcopal  councils,  for  I  have  never 
known  one  of  them  come  to  any  good  and  pros- 
perous issue,  or  which  did  not  tend  rather  to  the 
growth  than  the  diminution  of  evils."*'  But  I  will 
not  be  so  severe  and  dogmatical  against  them :  for 
I  believe  many  councils  to  have  been  called  with 
sufficient  authority,  to  have  been  managed  with 
singular  piety  and  prudence,  and  to  have  been 
finished  with  admirable  success  and  truth ;  and 
where  we  find  such  councils,  he  that  will  not,  with 
all  veneration,  believe  their  decrees,  and  receive 
their  sanctions,  understands  not  that  great  duty  he 
owes  to  them  who  have  the  care  of  our  souls, 
whose  '  faith  we  are  bound  to  follow,'  saith  St. 
Fault;  that  is,  so  long  as  they  follow  Christ,  and 
certainly  many  councils  have  done  so:  but  this 
was  then,  when  the  public  interest  of  Christendom 
was  better  conserved  in  determining  a  true  article 
than  in  finding  a  discreet  temper,  or  a  wise 
expedient,  to  satisfy  disagreeing  persons  (as  the 
fathers  at  Trent  did,  and  the  Lutherans  and  Cal- 
vinists  did  at  Sendomir,  in  Polonia ;  and  the 
Sublapsarians  and  Supralapsarians  did  at  Dort). 
It  was  in  ages  when  the  sum  of  religion  did  not 
consist  in  maintaining  the  dignity  of  the  papacy  ; 
where  there  was  no  order  of  men,  with  a  fourth 
vow   upon  them,  to  advance  St.  Peter's  chair ; 

*  "  Ego  si  vera  scribere  oportet  ita  aniino  afiectus  sum,  ut 
omnia  episcoporum  concilia  fu^iam,  quoniam  nullius  con- 
cilii  fi'iem  Itetum  faustumque  vidi,  nee  quod  depulsionem 
maloru ,  i  potius  quam  accessionem  et  incrementum  habuerit." 
— Athanas.  lib.  De  Synod.  Frustra  igitur  circumcursitantes 
praetexunt  oh  fidera  se  Synodos  pos^ilare,  cum  sit  Divina 
Scriptura  omnibus  potentior. 

t  Heb.  xiii.  7. 
18* 


210  THE   SACRED   CLASSICS. 

when  there  was  no  man,  or  any  company  of  men, 
that  esteemed  themselves  infallible ;  and,  there- 
fore, they  searched  for  truth  as  if  they  meant  to 
find  it,  and  would  believe  it  if  they  could  see  it 
proved ;  not  resolved  to  prove  it,  because  they 
had,  upon  chance  or  interest,  believed  it ;  then 
they  had  rather  have  spoken  a  truth  than  upheld 
their  reputation,  but  only  in  order  to  truth. 
This  was  done  sometimes,  and  w4ien  it  was  done, 
God's  spirit  never  failed  them,  but  gave  them  such 
assistances  as  were  sufficient  to  that  good  end  for 
which  they  v/ere  assembled,  and  did  implore  his 
aid ;  and  therefore  it  is,  that  the  four  general 
councils,  so  called  by  way  of  eminency,  liave 
gained  so  great  a  reputation  above  all  others ;  not 
because  they  had  a  better  promise,  or  more  special 
assistances,  but  because  they  proceeded  better, 
according  to  the  rule,  with  less  faction,  with- 
out ambition  and  temporal  ends. 

And  yet  those  very  assemblies  of  bishops  had  no 
authority,  by  their  decrees,  to  make  a  divine 
faith,  or  to  constitute  new  objects  of  necessary 
credence ;  they  made  nothing  true  that  was  not  so 
before  ;  and,  therefore  they  are  to  be  apprehended  in 
the  nature  of  excellent  guides,  and  whose  decrees 
are  most  certainly  to  determine  all  those  who  have 
no  argument  to  the  contrary,  of  greater  force  and 
efficacy  than  the  authority  or  reasons  of  the 
council.  And  there  is  a  duty  owing  to  every 
parish  priest,  and  to  every  diocesan  bishop ;  these 
are  appointed  over  us,  and  to  answer  for  our  souls, 
and  are,  therefore,  morally  to  guide  us,  as  reason- 
able creatures  are  to  be  guided ;  that  is,  by  reason 
and  discourse:  for  in  things  of  judgment  and 
understanding,  they  are  but  in  form  next  above 
beasts,  that  are  to  be  ruled  by  the  imperiousness 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  211 

and  absoluteness  of  authority,  unless  the  authority 
be  divine ;  that  is,  infallible.  Now,  then,  in  a 
juster  height,  but  still  in  its  true  proportion, 
assemblies  of  bishops  are  to  guide  us  with  a  higher 
authority;  because,  in  reason,  it  is  supposed  they 
will  do  it  better,  with  more  argument  and  cer- 
tainty, and  with  decrees,  which  have  the  advan- 
tage, by  being  the  results  of  many  discourses  of 
very  wise  and  good  men ;  but  that  the  authority 
of  general  councils  was  never  esteemed  absolute, 
infallible,  and  unlimited,  appears  in  this,  that 
before  they  were  obliging,  it  was  necessary  that 
each  particular  church,  respectively,  should  accept 
them:  concurrente  universali  totius  ecdesiss  con- 
sensu, fyc.  in  dedaratione  veritatum  quz  credendss 
stmt,  4'C.*  That  is  the  way  of  making  the  de- 
crees of  councils  become  authentic,  and  be  turned 
into  a  law,  as  Gerson  observes;  and  till  they  did, 
their  decrees  were  but  a  dead  letter  (and  there- 
fore it  is,  that  these  later  popes  have  so  labored 
that  the  council  of  Trent  should  be  received  in 
France :  and  Carolus  Molineus,  a  great  lawyer, 
and  of  the  Roman  communion,  disputed  against 
the  reception)  ;t  and  this  is  a  known  condition  in 
the  canon  law  ;  but  it  proves  plainly  that  the  de- 
crees of  councils  have  their  authority  from  the 
voluntary  submission  of  the  particular  churches, 
not  from  the  prime  sanction  and  constitution  of 
the  council.  And  there  is  great  reason  it  should  ; 
for  as  the  representative  body  of  the  church  de- 
rives all  power  from  the  diffusive  body  which  is 
represented,  so  it  resolves  into  it ;  and  though  it 

*  Vid.  St.  August,  lib.  i.  c.  18.  de  Bapt.  Contr.  Donat. 

t  So  did  the  third  estate  of  France,  in  the  convention  of 
the  three  estates,  under  Lewis  XIII,  earnestly  contend 
against  it. 


212  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

may  have  all  the  legal  power,  yet  it  hath  not  all 
the  natural ;  for  more  able  men  may  be  iinsent  than 
sent ;  and  they  who  are  sent  may  be  wrought  upon 
by  stratagem,  which  cannot  happen  to  the  whole 
diffusive  church :  it  is,  therefore,  most  fit,  that 
since  the  legal  power,  that  is,  the  external,  was 
passed  over  to  the  body  representative,  yet  the 
efficacy  of  it,  and  the  internal,  should  so  still  re- 
main in  the  diffusive,  as  to  have  power  to  consider 
whether  their  representatives  did  their  duty,  yea 
or  no ;  and  so  to  proceed  accordingly,  for,  unless  it 
be  in  matters  of  justice,  in  which  the  interest  of  a 
third  person  is  concerned,  no  man  will  or  can  be 
supposed  to  pass  away  all  power  from  himself,  of 
doing  himself  right  in  matters  personal,  proper, 
and  of  so  high  concernment :  it  is  most  unnatural 
and  unreasonable.  But,  besides  that  they  are 
excellent  instruments  of  peace,  the  best  human 
judicatories  in  the  world,  rare  sermons  for  the 
determining  a  point  in  controversy,  and  the 
greatest  probability  from  human  authority;  be- 
sides these  advantages,  I  say,  I  know  nothing 
greater  that  general  councils  can  pretend  to,  witii 
reason  and  argument,  sufficient  to  satisfy  any  wise 
man :  and  as  there  was  never  any  council  so 
general  but  it  might  have  been  more  general ;  for, 
in  respect  of  the  wliole  church,  even  Nice  itself 
was  but  a  small  assembly ;  so  there  is  no  decree 
so  well  constituted  but  it  may  be  proved  by  an 
argument  higher  tluan  the  authority  of  the  council. 
And,  therefore,  general  councils,  and  national,  and 
provincial,  and  diocesan,  in  their  several  decrees, 
are  excellent  guides  for  the  prophets,  and  direc- 
tions and  instructions  for  their  prophesyings ;  but 
not  of  weight  and  authority  to  restrain  their  liberty 
so  wholly  but  that  they  may  dissent,  when  they 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  213 

see  a  reason  strong  enough  so  to  persuade  them  as 
to  be  willing,  upon  the  confidence  of  that  reason, 
and  their  own  sincerity,  to  answer  to  God  for 
such  their  modesty,  and  peaceable,  but  (as  they 
believe)  their  necessary  disagreeing. 


214  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS, 


SECTION    VIl. 

Of  the  fallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  the  uncertainty 
of  his  expounding  Scripture^  and  resolving  Ques- 
tions. 

But  since  the  question  between  the  council  and 
the  pope  grew  high,  they  have  not  wanted  abettors 
so  confident  on  the  pope's  behalf,  as  to  believe 
general  councils  to  be  nothing  but  pomps  and 
solemnities  of  the  catholic  church,  and  that  all  the 
authority  of  determining  controversies  is  formally 
and  effectually  in  the  pope;  and,  therefore, to  ap- 
peal from  the  pope  to  a  future  council  is  a  heresy ; 
yea,  and  treason  too,  said  pope  Pius  II;*  and 
therefore,  it  concerns  us  now  to  be  wise  and  wary. 
But  before  I  proceed,  I  must  needs  remember,  that 
pope  Pius  II,t  while  he  was  the  wise  and  learned 
iEneas  Sylvius,  was  very  confident  for  the  pre- 
eminence of  a  council,  and  gave  a  merry  reason 
why  more  clerks  were  for  the  popes  than  the  coun- 
cil, though  the  truth  was  on  the  other  side ;  even 
because  the  pope  gives  bishoprics  and  abbeys,  but 
councils  give  none ;  and  yet,  as  soon  as  he  was 
made  pope,  as  if  he  had  been  inspired,  his  eyes 
were  opened  to  see  the  great  privileges  of  St.  Peter's 
chair,  which  before  he  could  not  see,  being  amused 
with  the  truth,  or  else  with  the  reputation  of  a  ge- 
neral council.     But,  however,  there  are  many  that 

*  Epist.  ad  Norimberg. 

f  "Patrum  et  avorum  nostrorinn  tempore  pauci  audebant 
dicere  papain  esse  supra  concil." — Lib.  i.  de  Gestis  ConciL 
Basil. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  215 

hope  to  make  it  good,  that  the  pope  is  the  universal 
and  the  infallible  doctor,  that  he  breathes  decrees 
as  oracles,  that  to  dissent  from  any  of  his  cathedral 
determinations,  is  absolute  heresy,  the  rule  of  faith 
being  nothing  else  but  conformity  to  the  chair 
of  Peter.  So  that  here  we  have  met  a  restraint  of 
prophesy  indeed ;  but  yet,  to  make  amends,  I  hope 
we  shall  have  an  infallible  guide  ;  and  when  a  man 
is  in  heaven,  he  will  never  complain  that  his  choice 
is  taken  from  him,  and  he  is  confined  to  love  and 
to  admire,  since  his  love  and  his  admiration  is 
fixed  upon  that  which  makes  him  happy,  even 
upon  God  himself.  And  in  the  church  of  Rome, 
there  is,  in  a  lower  degree,  but  in  a  true  propor- 
tion, as  little  cause  to  be  troubled,  that  we  are 
confined  to  believe  just  so,  and  no  choice  left  us 
for  our  understandings  to  discover,  or  our  wills  to 
choose ;  because,  though  we  be  limited,  yet  we  are 
pointed  out  where  we  ought  to  rest;  we  are  con- 
fined to  our  centre,  and  there  where  our  under- 
standings will  be  satisfied,  and  therefore  will  be 
quiet,  and  where,  after  all  our  strivings,  studies, 
and  endeavors,  we  desire  to  come  ;  that  is,  to  truth, 
for  there  we  are  secured  to  find  it,  because  we  have 
a  guide  that  is  infallible  :  if  this  prove  true,  we  are 
well  enough;  but  if  it  be  false,  or  uncertain,  it 
were  better  we  had  still  kept  our  liberty,  than  be 
cozened  out  of  it  with  gay  pretences.  This,  then, 
v/e  must  consider. 

And  here  we  shall  be  oppressed  with  a  cloud  of 
witnesses  :  for  what  more  plain  than  the  commis- 
sion given  to  Peter  ?  '  Thou  are  Peter,  and  upon 
this  rock  will  I  build  my  church;'  and  'to  thee 
will  I  give  the  keys.'  And  again :  *  For  thee  have  I 
prayed,  that  thy  faith  fail  not;  but  thou,  when  thou 
art  converted,  confirm  thy  brethren.'   And  again: 


216  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

*  If  thou  lovest  me,  feed  my  sheep.'  Now,  nothing 
of  this  being  spoken  to  any  of  the  other  apostles, 
by  one  of  these  places,  St.  Peter  must  needs  be 
appointed  foundation,  or  head  of  the  church  ;  and, 
by  consequence,  he  is  to  rule  and  govern  all.  By 
some  other  of  these  places  he  is  made  the  supreme 
pastor,  and  he  is  to  teach  and  determine  all,  and 
enabled,  with  an  infallible  power  so  to  do :  and,  in 
a  right  understanding  of  these  authorities,  the  fa- 
thers spake  great  things  of  the  chair  of  Peter ;  for 
we  are  as  much  bound  to  believe  that  all  this  was 
spoken  to  Peter's  successors,  as  to  his  person  ;  that 
must,  by  all  means,  be  supposed;  and  so  did  the 
old  doctors,  who  had  as  much  certainty  of  it  as  we 
have,  and  no  more ;  but  yet  let  us  hear  what  they 
have  said :  "To  this  church,  by  reason  of  its  moi'fe 
powerful  principality,  it  is  necessary  all  churches 
round  about  should  convene."*  "In  this, tradition 
apostolical  always  was  observed  ;  and,  therefore,  to 
communicate  with  this  bishop,  with  this  church, 
was  to  be  in  communion  with  the  church  catholic"! 
"To  this  church  error  or  perfidiousness  cannot 
have  access.":};  "Against  this  see  gates  of  hell 
cannot  prevail."§  "For  we  know  this  church  to 
be  built  upon  a  rock:  and  whoever  eats  the  lamb, 
not  within  this  house,  is  profane ;  he  that  is  not 
in  the  ark  of  Noah  perishes  in  the  inundation  of 
waters.  He  that  gathers  not  with  this  bishop,  he 
scatters ;  and  he  that  belongeth  not  to  Christ,  must 
needs  belong  to  antichrist  ;"||  and  that  is  his  final 
sentence.    But  if  you  would  have  all  this  proved 

*  Irense.  Contr,  Hseres.  lib.  iii.  c.  3. 
t  Ambr.  de  Obitu  Salyri.  et  lib.  i.  Ep.  iv.  ad  Imp.  Cj'pr. 
Ep.  Iii, 

X  Cypr.  Ep.  Iv.  ad  Cornel. 

§  St.  Austin,  in  Psal.  contra  part.  Donat. 

II  Hieion.  Ep.  Ivii.  adDamasum. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  217 

by  an  infallible  argument,  Optatus*  of  Mileyis  in 
Africa,  supplies  it  to  us  from  the  very  name  of  Peter : 
for  therefore  Christ  gave  him  the  cognomination 
of  Cephas,  am  t«c  x2p*A«f,  to  show  that  St.  Peter 
was  the  visible  head  of  the  catholic  church.  A 
cover  this,  truly  worthy  of  the  dish  !t  This  long 
harangue  must  needs  be  full  of  tragedy  to  all  them 
that  take  liberty  to  themselves  to  follow  Scripture 
and  their  best  guides,  if  it  happens,  in  that  liberty, 
that  they  depart  from  the  persuasions  or  the  com- 
munion of  Rome :  but,  indeed,  if  with  the  peace  of 
the  bishops  of  Rome  I  may  say  it,  this  scene  is  the 
most  unhandsomely  laid,  and  the  worst  carried  of 
any  of  those  pretences  that  have  lately  abused 
Christendom. 

1.  Against  the  allegations  of  Scripture,  I  shall 
lay  no  greater  prejudice  than  this,  that  if  a  person 
disinterested  should  see  them  and  consider  wjiat 
the  products  of  them  might  possibly  be,  the  last 
thing  that  he  would  think  of  would  be,  how  that 
any  of  these  places  should  serve  the  ends  or  pre- 
tences of  tlie  church  of  Rome.  For,  to  instance 
in  one  of  the  particulars  that  man  had  need  have 
a  strong  fancy,  who  imagines,  that  because  Christ 
prayed  for  St.  Peter  (being  he  had  designed  him 
to  be  one  of  -those  upon  whose  preaching  and 
doctrine  he  did  mean  to  constitute  a  church), 
*  that  his  faith  might  not  fail'  (for  it  was  neces- 
sary that  no  bitterness,  or  stopping,  should  be  in 
one  of  the  first  springs,  lest  the  current  be  either 
spoiled  or  obstructed),  that  therefore  the  faith  of 
pope  Alexander  VI,  or  Gregory,  or  Clement, 
fifteen  hundred  years  after,  should  be  preserved 
by  virtue  of  that  prayer,  which  the  form  of  words, 

*  Lib.  ii.  Contra  Parmenian. 
t  "  Dignum  patella  operculuin !" 
19 


218  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  time,  the  occasion,  the  manner  of  the  address, 
the  effect  itself,  and  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
action  and  person,  did  determine  to  be  personal ; 
and  when  it  was  more  than  personal,  St.  Peter  did 
not  represent  his  successors  at  Rome,  but  the 
whole  catholic  church,  says  Aquinas,*  and  the 
divines  of  the  university  of  Paris.  "  They  ex- 
plain the  prayer  as  referring  to  the  church  alone,"t 
says  Bellarmine  of  them ;  and  the  gloss  upon  the 
canon  law  plainly  denies  the  effect  of  this  prayer 
at  all  to  appertain  to  the  pope ;  **  The  question  is, 
respecting  what  church  we  are  to  understand  it 
said,  that  it  is  infallible ;  is  it  of  the  pope  himself, 
who  is  called  the  church  ?  But  it  is  certain  that 
the  pope  may  err. — I  answer,  the  congregation  of 
the  faithful  is  here  called  the  church;  and  it 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  such,  for  our  Lord 
himself  prays  for  the  church ;  and  will  not  be 
disappointed  of  the  request  of  his  lips.".t  But 
there  is  a  little  danger  in  this  argument,  vrhen  we 
well  consider  it;  but  it  is  likely  to  redound  on 
the  head  of  those  whose  turns  it  should  serve  : 
for  it  may  be  remembered,  that  for  ail  this  prayer 
of  Christ  for  St.  Peter,  the  good  man  fell  foully, 
and  denied  his  master  shamefully  ;  and  shall 
Christ's  prayer  be  of  greater  efficacy  for  his  suc- 
cessors, for  whom  it  was  made  but  indirectly  and 
by  consequence,  than  himself,  for  whom  it  was 

*  22.  ae.  q.  2.  a.  6.  ar.  6.  ad.  3.  m. 

t  *'  Volunt  enim  pro  sola  ecclesia  esse  oratum." — Lib.  iv 
de  Rom.  Pont.  c.  3,§.  1. 

X  "  Qusere  de  qua  ecclesia  intelligas  quod  hoc  dicitur,  quod 
non  possit  errare,  si  de  ipso  papa  qui  ecclesia  dicitur  ?  sed 
certum  est,  quod  papa  errare  potest.  Respondeo  ipsa  con- 
gregatio  fidelium  hie  dicitur  ecclesia ;  et  talis  ecclesia  non 

{)otest  non  esse,  nam  ipse  Dominus  orat  pro  ecclesia,  et  vo- 
untate  iabiorum  suorum  non  fraudabitur." — Caus.  xxi.  cap. ' 
a  recta,  q.  1.  xxix.  Dist.  Anastatius,  60,  di.  si  Papa. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  219 

directly  and  in  the  first  intention?  And  if 
not,  then,  for  all  this  argument,  the  popes  may 
deny  Christ,  as  well  as  their  chief  and  decessor, 
Peter.  But  it  should  not  be  forgotten,  how  the 
Roman  doctors  will  by  no  means  allow  that 
St.  Peter  was  then  the  chief  bishop  or  pope, 
when  he  denied  his  master.  But,  tlien,  much 
less  was  he  chosen  chief  bishop  when  the  prayer 
was  made  for  him,  because  the  prayer  was  made 
before  his  fall ;  that  is,  before  tliat  time  in  which 
it  is  confessed  he  was  not  as  yet  made  pope; 
and  how,  then,  the  whole  succession  of  the 
papacy  should  be  entitled  to  it  passes  the  length 
of  my  hand  to  span.  But,  then,  also,  if  it  be 
supposed  and  allowed,  that  these  words  shall 
entail  infallibility  upon  the  chair  of  Rome,  why 
shall  not  also  all  the  apostolical  sees  be  infallible, 
as  well  as  Rome?  why  shall  not  Constantinople,  or 
Byzantium,  where  St.  Andrew  sat  ?  why  shall  not 
Ephesus,  where  St.  John  sat ;  or  Jerusalem,  where 
St.  James  sat?  for  Christ  prayed  for  them  all, 
*that  the  Father  should  sanctify  them  by  his 
truth.'  John  xvii. 

2.  For  was  it  personal  or  not?  If  it  were,  then 
the  bishops  of  Rome  have  nothing  to  do  vvith  it  i 
if  it  were  not,  then  by  what  argument  will  it  be 
made  evident  ^at  St.  Peter,  in  the  promise,  re- 
presented only  his  successors,  and  not  the  whole 
college  of  apostles,  and  the  whole  hierarchy  ?  For, 
if  St.  Peter  was  chief  of  the  apostles  and  head  of 
the  church,  he  might,  fair  enough,  be  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  whole  college,  and  receive  it  in 
their  right  as  well  as  his  own;  which  also  is 
certain  that  it  was  so,  for  the  same  promise  of 
binding  and  loosing  (which  certainly  was  all  that 
the  keys  were  given  for),  was  made  afterwards  to 


220  THE  SxiCRED  CLASSICS. 

all  the  apostles,  Matt,  xviii ;  and  the  power  of 
remitting  and  retaining,  whicli,  in  reason  and 
according  to  the  style  of  the  church,  is  the  same 
thing  in  other  words,  was  actually  given  to  all  the 
apostles.  And  unless  that  was  the  performing 
the  first  and  second  promise,  we  find  it  not  re- 
corded in  Scripture  how,  or  when,  or  whether  yet 
or  no,  the  promise  be  performed  :  that  promise,  I 
say,  which  did  not  pertain  to  Peter  principally 
and  by  origination,  and  to  the  rest  by  communica- 
tion, society,  and  adherence;  but  that  promise 
which  was  made  to  Peter  first,  but  not  for  liimself, 
but  for  all  the  college,  and  for  all  their  successors, 
and  then  made  the  second  time  to  them  all, 
without  representation,  but  in  diffusion,  and  per- 
formed to  all  alike  in  presence,  except  St. 
Thomas.  And  if  he  went  to  St.  Peter  to  derive 
it  from  him,  I  knov/  not;  I  find  no  record  for 
that ;  but  that  Christ  conveyed  the  promise  to 
him  by  the  same  commission,  the  church  yet 
never  doubted,  nor  had  she  any  reason.  But  this 
matter  is  too  notorious :  I  say  no  more  to  it,  but 
repeat  the  words  and  argument  of  St.  Austin.* 
*'  If  the  keys  were  only  given  and  so  promised  to 
St.  Peter,  that  the  church  hath  not  the  keys,  then 
the  church  can  neither  bind  nor  loose,  remit  nor 
retain;  which  God  forbid."  If  any  man  should 
endeavor  to  answer  this  argument,  I  leave  him 
and  St.  Austin  to  contest  it. 

3.  For  '  Feed  my  sheep,'  there  is  little  in  that 
allegation,  besides  the  boldness  of  the  objectors; 
for  were  not  all  the  apostles  bound  to  feed  Christ's 
sheep?  Had  they  not  all  the  commission  from 
Christ,  and  Christ's  Spirit  immediately  ?    St.  Paul 

*  "  Si  hoc  Petro  tantum  dictum  est,  iion  facit  hoc  ecclesia." 
— Tra.  1.  in  Joann. 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  221 

had  certainly.  Did  not  St.  Peter  himself  say  to 
all  the  bishops  of  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia, 
Asia,  and  Bithinia,  that  they  should  feed  the  flock 
of  God,  and  the  great  Bishop  and  Shepherd  should 
give  them  an  immarcescible  crown;  plainly  imply- 
ing, that  from  whence  they  derived  their  authority, 
from  him  they  were  sure  of  a  reward  ?  In  pursu- 
ance of  which,  St.  Cyprian  laid  his  argument  upon 
this  basis.*  Did  not  St.  Paul  call  to  the  bishops 
«f  Ephesus  to  feed  the  flock  of  God,  of  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  hath  made  them  bishops  or  overseers.^ 
And  that  this  very  commission  was  spoken  to 
Peter  not  in  a  personal,  but  a  public  capacity,  and 
in  him  spoke  to  all  the  apostles,  we  see  attested 
by  St.  Austin  and  St.  Ambrose,!  and  generally  by 
all  antiquity;  and  it  so  concerned  even  every 
priest,  that  Damasus  was  willing  enough  to  have 
St.  Jerome  explicate  many  questions  for  him. 
And  Liberius  writes  an  epistle  to  Athanasius,  with 
much  modesty  requiring  his  advice  in  a  question 
of  faith :  "  That  I  also  may  be  persuaded  without 
all  doubting,  of  those  things  which  you  shall  be 
pleased  to  command  me."±  Now,  Liberius  needed 
not  to  have  troubled  himself  to  have  writ  into  the 
east  to  Athanasius;  for,  if  he  had  but  seated 
himself  in  his  chair,  and  made  the  dictate,  the  result 
of  his  pen  and  ink  would  certainly  have  taught 
him  and  all  the  church ;  but  that  the  good  pope 
was  ignorant  that  either  'Feed  my  sheep'  was 
his  own  charter  and  prerogative,  or.  that  any 
other  words  of  Scripture  had  made  him  to  be 
infallible :  or  if  he  was  not  ignorant  of  it,  he  did 

*  "  Nam  cum  statutum  sit  omnibus  nobis,  &c,  et  singulis 
pastoribus  portio  gre|;;is,  &.c." — Lib.  i.  Ep.  3. 
t  De  Agone  Christi,  c,  30. 

Epist.  ad  Athanas,  apud  Athanas.  torn.  i.  page  42.  Paris. 
19* 


222  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

very  ill  to  compliment  himself  out  of  it.  So  did 
all  those  bishops  of  Rome  that,  in  that  trouble- 
some and  unprofitable  question  of  Easter,  being 
unsatisfied  in  the  supputation  of  the  Egyptians, 
and  the  definitions  of  the  mathematical  bishops  of 
Alexandria,  did  yet  require  and  entreat  St.  Am- 
brose* to  tell  them  his  opinion,  as  he  himself 
witnesses.  If  '  Feed  my  sheep'  belongs  only  to 
the  pope  by  primary  title,  in  these  cases  the  sheep 
came  to  feed  the  shepherd;  which,  though  it  was 
well  enough  in  the  thing,  is  very  ill  for  the  preten- 
sions of  the  Roman  bishops ;  and  if  we  consider 
how  little  many  of  the  popes  have  done  towards 
feeding  the  sheep  of  Christ,  we  shall  hardly  de- 
termine which  is  the  greater  prevarication,  that 
the  pope  should  claim  the  whole  commission  to 
be  granted  to  him,  or  that  the  execution  of  the 
commission  should  be  wholly  passed  over  to  others : 
and  it  may  be,  there  is  a  mystery  in  it,  that  since 
St.  Peter  sent  a  bishop  with  his  staff  to  raise  up  a 
disciple  of  his  from  the  dead,  who  was  afterwards 
bishop  of  Triers,  the  popes  of  J^ome  never  wear  a 
pastoral  staff,  except  it  be  in  that  diocess  (says 
Aquinas),t  for  great  reason,  that  he  who  does  not 
do  the  office  should  not  bear  the  symbol ;  but  a 
man  would  think  that  the  pope's  master  of  cere- 
monies was  ill  advised,  not  to  assign  a  pastoral 
staff  to  him  who  pretends  the  commission  of  '  Feed 
my  sheep'  to  belong  to  him  by  prime  right  and 
origination.  But  this  is  not  a  business  to  be  merry 
in. 

But  the  great  support  is  expected  from,  'Thou 
art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
church,'  &c.  Now  there  being  so  great  difference 
in  the  exposition  of  these  words,  by  persons  dis- 

*  Lib.  X.  Ep.  83,  f  M.  iv.  Sent.  Dist.  21. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  223 

interested,  who,  if  any,  might  be  allowed  to  judge 
in  this  question,  it  is  certain  that  neither  one  sense 
nor  other  can  be  obtruded  for  an  article  of  iaith ; 
much  less  as  a  catholicon  instead  of  all,  by  con- 
stituting an  authority  which  should  guide  us  in  all 
faith,  and  determine  us  in  all  questions ;  for  if 
the  church  was  not  built  upon  the  person  of  Peter, 
then  his  successors  can  challenge  nothing  from 
this  instance.  Now,  that  it  was  the  confession  of 
Peter  upon  which  the  church  was  to  rely  for  ever, 
we  have  witnesses  very  credible ;  St.  Ignatius,  '■ 
St.  Basil,t  St.  Hilary,!  St.  Gregory  Nyssen,§  St. 
Gregory  the  great,||  St.  Austin^,  St.  Cyril  of 
Alexandria,**  Isidore  Pelusiot,tt  and  very  many 
more.  And,  although  all  these  witnesses  con- 
curring cannot  make  a  proposition  to  be  true,  yet 
they  are  sufficient  witnesses,  that  it  was  not  the 
universal  belief  of  Christendom  that  the  church 
was  built  upon  St.  Peter's  person.  Cardinal 
Perron  hath  a  fine  fancy  to  elude  this  variety  of 
exposition,  and  the  consequents  of  it ;  for  (saith  he) 
these  expositions  are  not  contrary  or  exclusive  of 
each  other,  but  inclusive  and  consequent  to  each 
other:  for  the  church  is  founded  casually  upon 
the  confession  of  St.  Peter,  formerly  upon  the 
ministry  of  his  person ;  and  this  was  a  reward 
or  consequent  of  the  former.  So  that  these  expo- 
sitions are  both  true,  but  they  are  conjoined  as 
mediate  and  immediate,  direct  and  collateral, 
literal  and  moral,  original  and  perpetual,  accessory 
and  temporal ;  the  one  consigned  at  the  beginning, 
the  other  inti;oduced  upon  occasion :  for  before 

*  Ad  Philadelph.  f  Seleuc.  Orat.  xxv. 

t  Lib.  vi.  De  Trim.  §  De  Trin.  advers.  Judaeos. 

II  Lib.  iii.  Ep.  33.  IT  In  1  Eph.  Joann.  ti".  10. 

**  De  Trin.  lib.  iv.  ff  Lib.  i.  Ep.  235. 


2£4  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  spring  of  the  Arian  heresy,  the  fathers  ex- 
pounded these  words  of  the  person  of  Peter ;  but 
after  the  Arians  troubled  them,  the  fathers,  finding 
great  authority  and  energy  in  this  confession  of 
Peter,  for  the  establishment  of  the  natural  filiation 
of  the  Son  of  God,  to  advance  the  reputation  of 
these  words  and  the  force  of  the  argument,  gave 
themselves  licence  to  expound  these  words  to  the 
present  advantage,  and  to  make  the  confession  of 
Peter  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  church ;  that,  if 
the  Arians  should  encounter  this  authority,  they 
might,  with  more  prejudice  to  their  persons,  de- 
claim against  their  cause,  by  saying  they  over- 
threv/  the  foundation  of  the  church.  Besides  that 
this  answer  does  much  dishonor  the  reputation  of 
the  fathers'  integrity, and  makes  their  interpreta- 
tions less  credible,  as  being  made  not  of  know- 
ledge or  reason,  but  of  necessity  and  to  serve  a 
present  turn,  it  is  also  false ;  for  Ignatius*  ex- 
pounds it  in  a  spiritual  sense,  which  also  the  liturgy 
attributed  to  St.  James  calls  i-n  Tnrpctv  ^yi?  Trion-ice;, 
"'  upon  the  rock  of  the  faith :"  and  Origen  expounds 
it  mystically  to  a  third  purpose,  but  exclusively 
to  this  :  and  all  these  were  before  the  Arian  con- 
troversy. But  if  it  be  lawful  to  make  such 
unproved  observations,  it  would  have  been  to 
better  purpose,  and  more  reason,  to  have  observed 
it  thus :  the  fathers,  so  long  as  the  bishop  of  Rome 
kept  himself  to  the  limits  prescribed  him  by  Christ, 
and  indulged  to  him  by  the  constitution  or  con- 
cession of  the  church,  were  unwary  and  apt  to 
expound  this  place  of  the  person  of  Peter ;  but 
when  the  church  began  to  enlarge  her  phylacteries, 
by  the  favor  of  princes  and  the  sunshine  of  a 
prosperous  fortune,  and  the  pope,  by  the  ad  van - 
♦  Epist.  ad  Philadelph.  in  c.  16.  Mat.  Tract.  1. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  122D 

tag-3  of  the  imperial  seat,  and  other  accidents, 
began  to  invade  upon  the  other  bishops  and  pa- 
triarchs, then,  that  he  might  have  no  color  from 
vScripture  for  such  new  pretentions,  they  did,  most 
generally,  turn  the  stream  of  their  expositions 
from  the  person  to  the  confession  of  Peter,  and 
declared  that  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  church. 
And  thus  I  have  requited  fancy  with  fancy :  but, 
for  the  main  point,  that  these  two  expositions  are 
inclusive  of  each  other,  I  find  no  warrant ;  for 
though  they  may  consist  together  well  enough,  if 
Christ  had  so  intended  them,  yet,  unless  it  could 
be  shown  by  some  circumstance  of  the  text,  or 
some  other  extrinsical  argument,  that  they  must 
be  so,  and  that  both  senses  were  actually  intended, 
it  is  but  gratis  dictum^  and  a  begging  of  the  ques- 
tion, to  say  that  they  are  so ;  and  the  fancy  so  new, 
that  when  St.  Austin  had  expounded  this  place  of 
the  person  of  Peter,  he  reviews  it  again,  and,  in 
his  retractations,  leaves  every  man  to  his  liberty 
whicli  to  take ;  as  having  nothing  certain  in  this 
article :  which  had  been  altogether  needless,  if  he 
had  believed  them  to  be  inclusively  in  each  other, 
neither  of  them  had  need  to  have  been  retracted; 
both  were  alike  true,  both  of  them  might  have  been 
believed.  But  I  said  the  fancy  was  n^w,  and  I 
had  reason ;  for  it  was  so  unknown  till  yesterday, 
that  even  the  late  writers,  of  his  own  side,  ex- 
pound the  words  of  the  confession  of  St.  Peter, 
exclusively  to  his  person,  or  any  thing  else,  as  is 
to  be  seen  in  Marsillus,^  Petrus  de  Aliaco,\  and 
the  gloss  upon  Dist.  xix.  Can.  ita  I)ominus,§  ut 
supra,  which  also  was  the  intei-pretation  of  Phavo- 
rinus  Camers,  their  own  bishop,  from  whom  they 
learnt  the  resemblance  of  the  word  hsT/jo?  (Peter), 
*  Defens.  Pacis,  part.  ii.  c.  28.      f  Recommend.  Sacr.  Scrip. 


226  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

and  TTirpst,  (a  rock),  of  which  they  made  so  many 
gay  discourses. 

5.  But,  upon  condition  I  may  have  leave,  at 
another  time,  to  recede  from  so  great  and  numerous 
testimony  of  fathers,  I  am  willing  to  believe  that  it 
was  not  the  confession  of  St.  Peter,  but  his  person 
upon  which  Christ  said  he  would  build  his  church ; 
or  that  these  expositions  are  consistent  with  and 
consequent  to  each  other;  that  this  confession  was 
the  objective  foundation  of  faith,  and  Christ  and 
his  apostles  the  subjective — Christ  principally, 
and  St.  Peter  instrumental ly ;  and  yet  I  understand 
not  any  advantage  will  hence  accrue  to  the  see  of. 
Rome;  for  upon  St.  Peter  it  was  built,  but  not 
alone,  for  it  "  was  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being 
the  chief  corner-stone ;"  and  when  St.  Paul  reck- 
oned the  economy  of  hierarchy,  he  reckons  not 
Peter  first  and  then  the  apostles,  but  first  apostles, 
secondarily  prophets,  &c.  And  whatsoever  is  first, 
either  is  before  all  things  else,  or  at  least  nothing 
is  before  it;  so  that  at  least,  St.  Peter  is  not  before 
all  the  rest  of  the  apostles ;  which  also  St.  Paul 
expressly  avers  :  '  I  am  in  nothing  inferior  to  the 
very  chiefest  of  the  apostles  ;'  no,  not  in  the  very 
being  a  rock  and  a  foundation  ;  and  it  was  of  the 
church  of  Ephesus  that  St.  Paul  said,  in  particular, 
it  was  *  the  pillar  and  ground  (or  foundation)  of 
the  truth  ;'  that  church  was,  not  excluding  others, 
for  they  also  were  as  much  as  she :  for  so  we  keep 
close  and  be  united  to  the  corner-stone,  although 
some  be  master  builders,  yet  all  may  build  ;  and  we 
have  known  whole  nations  converted  by  laymen 
and  women  who  have  been  builders  so  far  as  to 
bring  tliem  to  the  corner-stone.* 

*   Vid.   Socrat.  lib.  i.  c.   19,  20.      Sozom.  lib.  ii.  c.  14- 
Niceph.  lib.  xiv.  c.  42. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  227 

6.  But  suppose  all  these  things  concern  St.  Peter, 
in  all  the  capacities  that  can  be  with  any  color 
pretended,  yet  what  have  the  bishops  of  Rome  to 
do  with  this  ?  For  how  will  it  appear  that  these 
promises  and  commissions  did  relate  to  him  as 
a  particular  bishop,  and  not  as  a  public  apostle  ? 
since  this  latter  is  so  much  the  more  likely,  because 
the  great  pretence  of  all  seems  in  reason  more 
proportionable  to  the  founding  of  a  church  than  its 
continuance:  and,  yet  if  they  did  relate  to  him  as 
a  particular  bishop  (which  yet  is  a  further  degree 
of  improbability,  removed  further  from  certainty), 
yet  why  shall  St.  Clement,  or  Linus,  rather  succeed 
in  this  great  oiRce  of  headship  than  St.  John,  or 
any  of  the  apostles  that  survived  Peter }  It  is  no  way 
likely  a  private  person  should  skip  over  the  head 
of  an  apostle.  Or  why  shall  his  successors  at 
Rome  more  enjoy  the  benefit  of  it  than  his  suc- 
cessors at  Antioch,  since  that  he  was  at  Antioch 
and  preached  there,  we  have  a  divine  authority ; 
but  that  he  did  so  at  Rome  at  most  we  have  but  a 
human.  And  if  it  be  replied,  that  because  he  died 
at  Rome,  it  was  argument  enough  that  there  his 
successors  were  to  inherit  his  privilege,  this,  besides 
that  at  most  it  is  but  one  little  degree  of  probability, 
and  so  not  of  strength  sufficient  to  support  an 
article  of  faith,  it  makes  that  the  great  divine  right 
of  Rome,  and  the  apostolical  presidency  was  so 
contingent  and  fallible  as  to  depend  upon  the 
decree  of  Nero  ;  and  if  he  had  sent  him  to  Antioch, 
there  to  have  suffered  martyrdom,  the  bishops  of 
that  town  had  been  heads  of  the  catholic  church. 
And  this  thing  presses  the  harder,  because  it 
is  held  by  no  mean  persons  in  the  church  of 
Rome,  that  the  bishopric  of  Rome  and  the  papacy 
are  things  separable  ;  and  the  pope  may  quit  that 


228  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

see  and  sit  in  another :  which,  to  my  under- 
standing, is  an  argument,  that  he  that  succeeded 
Peter  at  Antioch,  is  as  much  supreme  by  divine 
right,  as  he  that  sits  at  Rome  ;*  both  alike ;  that  is 
neither  bj  divine  ordinance  :  for  if  the  Roman 
bishops,  by  Christ's  intention,  were  to  be  head  of 
the  church,  then,  by  the  same  intention,  the  suc- 
cession must  be  continued  in  that  see;  and  then, 
let  the  pope  go  whither  he  will,  the  bishop  of 
Rome  must  be  the  head  ;  which  they  themselves 
deny,  and  the  pope  himself  did  not  believe,  when 
in  a  schism  he  sat  at  Avignon ;  and  that  it  was 
to  be  continued  in  the  see  of  Rome,  it  is  but 
oifered  to  us  upon  conjecture,  upon  an  act  of 
providence,  as  they  fancy  it  so  ordering  it  by 
vision,  and  this  proved  by  an  author  which  them- 
selves call  fabulous  and  apochryphal.t  A  goodly 
building  which  relies  upon  an  event  that  was 
accidental,  whose  purpose  was  but  insinuated, 
the  meaning  of  it  but  conjectured  at,  and  tliis 
conjecture  so  uncertain,  that  it  w^as  an  imperfect 
aim  at  the  purpose  of  an  event,  which,  whether  it 
was  true  or  no,  was  so  uncertain  that  it  is  ten  to 
one  tliere  was  no  such  matter.  And  yet,  again, 
another  degree  of  uncertainty  is,  to  whom  the 
bishops  of  Rome  do  succeed ;  for  St,  Paul  was 
as  much  bishop  of  Rome  as  St.  Peter  w^as :  there 
he  presided,  there  he  preached,  and  he  it  was  that 
was  the  doctor  of  the  uncircumcision  and  of  the 
gentiles ;  St.  Peter,  of  the  circumcision  and  of 
the  Jews  only ;  and,  therefore,  the  converted  Jews 
at  Rome  might,  with  better  reason,  claim  the  privi- 
lege of  St.  Peter,  than  the  Romans  and  the  churches 

*  Vid.  Cameracens.  Qu.  vespert. 

t  Under  the  name  of  Linus  inBiblioth.  P.  P.  de  Passione 
Petri  etPauli. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    rROPHESYING.  229 

in  her  communion,  who  do  not  derive  from  Jewish 
parents. 

7.  If  the  words  were  never  so  appropriate  to 
Peter,  or  also  communicated  to  his  successors,  yet 
of  what  value  will  the  consequent  be  ?  what  pre- 
rogative is  entailed  upon  the  chair  of  Rome? 
For  that  St.  Peter  was  the  ministerial  head  of  the 
church  is  the  most  that  is  desired  to  be  proved  by 
those  and  all  other  words  brought  for  the  same 
purposes  and  interests  of  that  see.  Now  let  the 
ministerial  head  have  what  dignity  can  be  imagined, 
let  him  be  the  first  (and  in  all  communities  that 
are  regular  and  orderly,  there  must  be  something 
tliat  is  first,  upon  certain  occasions  where  an 
equal  power  cannot  be  exercised,  and  made  pomp- 
ous or  ceremonial) ;  but  will  this  ministerial  head- 
ship infer  an  infallibility  ?  will  it  infer  more  than  the 
headship  of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  where  clearly 
the  high  priest  was  supreme  in  many  senses,  yet 
in  no  sense  infallible  ?  v/ill  it  infer  more  to  us 
than  it  did  amongst  the  apostles  ?  amongst  whom, 
if  for  order's  sake  St.  Peter  was  the  first,  yet  he 
had  no  compulsory  power  over  the  apostles  ;  there 
was  no  such  thing  spoke  of,  nor  any  such  thing  put 
in  practice.  And,  that  the  other  apostles  were, 
by  a  personal  privilege,  as  infallible  as  himself, 
is  no  reason  to  hinder  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction, 
or  any  compulsory  power  over  them :  for,  though 
in  faith  they  were  infallible,  yet  in  manners  and 
matter  of  fact  as  likely  to  err  as  St.  Peter  himself 
was;  and  certainly  there  might  have  something 
happened  in  the  whole  college  that  might  have 
been  a  record  of  his  authority,  by  transmitting  an 
example  of  the  exercise  of  some  judicial  power 
over  some  one  of  them  : — if  he  had  but  withstood 
any  of  them  to  tlieir  faces,  as  St.  Paul  did  liim,  it 
20 


230  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

had  been  more  than  yet  is  said  in  his  behalf.  Will 
the  ministerial  headship  infer  any  more  than,  when 
the  church,  in  a  community  or  a  public  capacity, 
should  do  any  act  of  ministry  ecclesiastical,  he 
shall  be  first  in  order  ?  Suppose  this  to  be  a 
dignity  to  preside  in  councils,  which  yet  was  not 
always  granted  him  ;  suppose  it  to  be  a  power  of 
takingcognizance  of  the  major  causes  of  bishops, 
when  councils  cannot  be  called ;  suppose  it  a  double 
voice,  or  the  last  decisive,  or  the  negative  in  the 
causes  exterior;  suppose  it  to  be  what  you  will  of 
dignity  or  external  regimen,  which,  when  all 
churches  were  united  in  communion,  and  neither 
the  interest  of  states,  nor  the  engagement  of 
opinions  had  made  disunion,  might  better  have 
been  acted  than  now  it  can  ;  yet  this  will  fall  in- 
finitely short  of  a  power  to  determine  controversies 
infallibly,  and  to  prescribe  to  all  men's  faith  and 
consciences.  A  ministerial  headship,  or  the  prime 
minister,  cannot,  in  any  capacity,  become  the 
foundation  of  the  church  to  any  such  purpose. 
And,  therefore,  men  are  causelessly  amused  with 
buch  premises,  and  are  afraid  of  such  conclusions 
vvhich  will  never  follow  from  the  admission  of  any 
sense  of* these  words  that  can  with  any  probability 
be  pretended. 

8.  I  consider  that  these  arguments  from  Scrip- 
ture are  too  weak  to  support  such  an  authority, 
which  pretends  to  give  oracles,  and  to  answer 
infallibly  in  questions  of  taith ;  because  there  is 
greater  reason  to  believe  the  popes  of  Rome  have 
erred,  and  greater  certainty  of  demonstration, 
than  these  places  can  be  that  they  are  infallible, 
as  will  appear  by  the  instances  and  perpetual 
experiment  of  their  being  deceived,  of  which 
there  is  no  question,  but  of  the  sense  of  these 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  231 

places  there  is;  and,  indeed  if  I  had  as  clear 
Scripture  for  their  infallibility  as  I  have  against 
their  half-communion,  against  their  service  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  worshiping  of  images,  and 
divers  other  articles,  I  would  make  no  scruple 
of  believing,  but  limit  and  conform  mj  under- 
standing to  all  their  dictates,  and  believe  it 
reasonable  all  prophesying  should  be  restrained. 
But  till  then  I  have  leave  to  discourse,  and  to  use 
my  reason;  and,  to  my  reason,  it  seems  not 
likely  that  neither  Christ  nor  any  of  his  apostles, 
St.  Peter  himself,  nor  St.  Paul,  writing  to  the 
church  of  Rome,  should  speak  the  least  word,  or 
tittle  of  the  infallibility  of  their  bishops ;  for  it 
was  certainly  as  convenient  to  tell  us  of  a  remedy,, 
as  to  foretell,  that  certainly  there  must  needs  be 
heresies,  and  need  of  a  remedy.  And  it  had 
been  a  certain  determination  of  the  question,  if 
when  so  rare  an  opportunity  was  ministered  in  the 
question  about  circumcision,  that  they  should 
have  sent  to  Peter,  who,  for  his  infallibility  in 
ordinary  and  his  power  of  headship,  would,  not 
only  with  reason  enough, as  being  infallibly  assisted, 
but  also  for  his  authority,  have  best  determined 
the  question,  if  at  least  the  first  Christians  had 
known  so  profitable  and  so  excellent  a  secret; 
and,  although  we  have  but  little  record  that  the 
first  council  at  Jerusalem  did  much  observe  the 
solemnities  of  law,  and  the  forms  of  conciliary 
proceedings,  and  the  ceremonials,  yet  so  much  of 
it  as  is  recorded,  is  against  them  ;  St.  James,  and 
not  St.  Peter,  gave  the  final  sentence ;  and  al- 
though St.  Peter  determined  the  question  in  favor 
of  liberty,  yet  St.  James  made  the  decree  and  the 
assumentum  too,  and  gave  sentence  they  should 
abstain  from  some  things  there  mentioned,  which 


232  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

by  way  of  temper  he  judged  most  expedient,  and 
so  it  passed.  And  St.  Peter  showed  no  sign  of  a 
superior  authority,  nothing  of  superior  jurisdic- 
tion, "  but  entreated  him,  that  every  thing  might 
be  determined  by  a  public  decision,  and  nothing 
by  any  person's  mere  authority  and  command."* 

So  that  if  this  question  be  to  be  determined  by 
Scripture,  it  must  either  be  ended  by  plain  places, 
or  by  obscure ;  plain  places  there  are  none,  and 
those  that  are  with  greatest  fancy  pretended,  are 
expounded  by  antiquity  to  contrary  pui-poses. 
But  if  obscure  places  be  all  the  ctu^ivnu.  (authority), 
by  what  means  shall  we  infalliblj^  find  the  sense 
of  them  ?  The  pope's  interpretation,  though  in 
all  other  cases  it  might  be  pretended,  in  this 
cannot;  for  it  is  the  thing  in  question,  and  there- 
fore cannot  determine  for  itself:  either  therefore, 
we  have  also  another  infallible  guide  besides  the 
pope,  and  so  we  have  two  foundations  and  two 
heads  (for  this,  as  well  as  the  other,  upon  the 
same  reason) :  or  else  (which  is  indeed  the  truth) 
there  is  no  infallible  way  to  be  infallibly  assured 
that  the  pope  is  infallible.  Now,  it  being  against 
the  common  condition  of  men,  above  the  pretences 
of  all  other  governors  ecclesiastical,  against  the 
analogy  of  Scripture,  and  the  deportment  of  the 
other  apostles,  against  the  economy  of  the  church, 
and  St.  Peter's  own  entertainment,  the  presump- 
tion lies  against  him ;  and  these  places  are  to  be 
left  to  their  prime  intentions,  and  not  put  upon 
the  rack  to  force  them  to  confess  what  they  never 
thought. 

But  now,  for  antiquity,  if  that  be  deposed  in 
this  question,  there  are  so  many  circumstances  to 

*  'Op«t  J«  AVTOV  fxyrct  ^ioivnc  ttclvtu  TroicuvTit  yvasjunc,  ovS'^}  e/.u- 
3T/Twa)f  ouS- Afx^KooZ' — ^-  Chrysost.  Horn.  iii.  in  Act.  Apost. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  233 

be  considered,  to  reconcile  their  words  and  their 
actions,  that  the  process  is  more  troublesome  than 
the  argument  can  be  concluding,  or  the  matter 
considerable:  but  I  shall  a  little  consider  it,  so 
far,  at  least,  as  to  show  either  that  antiquity  said 
no  such  thing  as  is  pretended,  or  if  thej  did,  it  is 
but    little    considerable,   because   they   did   not 
believe  themselves;  their  practice  was  the  greatest 
evidence  in  the  w^orld  against  the  pretence  of 
their  words.     But  I   am  much  eased  of  a  long 
disquisition  in  this  particular  (for  I  love  not  to 
prove  a  question  by  arguments  whose  authority  is 
in  itself  as  fallible,  and  by  circumstances  made  as 
uncertain   as   the   question),   by   the   saying   of 
j^neas  Sylvius,  that  before  the  Nicene  council 
every  man  lived  to  himself,  and  amall  respect  was 
had   to    the    church   of   Rome  ;   which   practice 
could  not  well  consist  with  the  doctrine  of  their 
bishops  infallibility,  and,  by  consequence,  supreme 
judgment  and  last  resolution,  in  matters  of  faith, 
but  especially  by  the  insinuation,  and  consequent 
acknowledgment,  of   Bellarmine,*   that  for   one 
tliousand  years  together,  the  fathers  knew  not  of 
ihe  doctrine  of  the  pope's  infallibility ;  for  Nilus, 
Gerson,  Almain,  the  divines  of  Paris,  Alphonsus 
de  Castro,  and   pope  Adrain   VI,  persons  who 
lived  fourteen  hundred  years  after  Christ,  affirm 
that  infallibility  is  not  seated  in  the  pope's  person, 
that  he  may  err,  and  sometimes  actually  hath ; 
which  is  a  clear  demonstration  that  the  church 
knew  no  such  doctrine  as  this ;  there  had  been  no 
decree,  nor  tradition,  nor  general  opinion  of  the 
fathers,  or  of  any  age  before  them ;  and  therefore 
this  opinion,  which  Bellarmine  would  fain  blast 

*  De  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  iv.  c.  2,^  Secunda  Sententia. 
20* 


234  THE   SACRED   CLASSICS. 

if  he  could,  yet  in  this  conclusion  he  says,  it  is 
not  properly  heretical.  A  device  and  an  expres- 
sion of  his  own,  without  sense  or  precedent.  But 
if  the  fathers  had  spoken  of  it  and  believed  it, 
why  may  not  a  disagreeing  person  as  well  reject 
their  authority  when  it  is  in  behalf  of  Rome,  as 
thsj  of  Rome,  without  scruple,  cast  them  off  when 
they  speak  against  it  ?  as  Bellarmine,  being  pressed 
with  the  authority  of  Nilus,  bishop  of  Thessa- 
lonica,  and  other  fathers,  says,  that  the  pope 
acknowledges  no  fathers,  but  they  are  all  his 
children,  and,  therefore,  they  cannot  depose  against 
him ;  and  if  that  be  true,  why  shall  we  take  their 
testimonies  for  him  ?  for  if  sons  depose  in  their 
father's  behalf,  it  is  twenty  to  one  but  the  adverse 
party  will  be  cast ;  and  therefore,  at  the  best,  it 
is  but  suspicious  evidence.  But,  indeed,  this 
discourse  signifies  nothing  but  a  perpetual  uncer- 
tainty in  such  topics,  and  that  where  a  violent 
prejudice,  or  a  concerning  interest  is  engaged, 
men,  by  not  regarding  what  any  man  says,  pro- 
claim to  all  the  world,  that  nothing  is  certain  but 
Divine  authority. 

But  I  will  not  take  advantage  of  what  Bellar- 
mine says,  nor  what  Stapleton,  or  any  one  of  them 
all  say ;  for  that  will  be  but  to  press  upon  personal 
persuasions,  or  to  urge  a  general  question  with  a 
particular  defailance,  and  the  question  is  never 
the  nearer  to  an  end ;  for  if  Bellarmine  says  any 
tiling  that  is  not  to  another  man's  purpose  or 
persuasion,  that  man  will  be  tried  by  his  own 
argument,  not  by  another's.  And  so  would  every 
man  do  that  loves  his  liberty,  as  all  wise  men  do, 
and  therefore  retain  it  by  open  violence,  or  private 
evasions :  but  to  return. 

An  authority  from   Irenasus  in  this  question. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  235 

and  on  behalf  of  the  pope's  infallibilitj,  or  the  au- 
thority of  the  see  of  Rome,  or  of  the  necessity  of 
communicating  witli  them,  is  very  fallible;  for, 
besides  that  there  are  almost  a  dozen  answers  to 
the  words  of  the  allegation,  as  is  to  be  seen  in  those 
that  trouble  themselves  in  this  question  with  the 
allegation,  and  answering  such  authorities,  yet,  if 
they  should  make  for  the  affirmative  of  this  ques- 
tion, it  is  an  affirmation  contrary  to  fact.*  For 
Irenaeus  had  no  such  great  opinion  of  pope  Victor's 
infallibility,  that  he  believed  things  in  tlie  same 
degree  of  necessity  that  the  pope  did ;  for  there- 
fore he  chides  him  for  excommunicating  the  Asian 
bishops  rtS-foa?,  all  at  a  blow,  in  the  question  con- 
cerning Easter  day  ;  and  in  a  question  of  faith,  he 
expressly  disagreed  from  the  doctrine  of  Rome,  for 
Irenaeus  was  of  the  millenary  opinion,  and  be- 
lieved it  to  be  a  tradition  apostolical :  now,  if  the 
church  of  Rome  was  of  that  opinion,  then  why  is 
she  not  now  ?  where  is  the  succession  of  her  doc- 
trine ?  But  if  she  was  not  of  that  opinion  then, 
and  Irenaeus  was,  v/here  was  his  belief  of  that 
church's  infallibility  ?  The  same  I  urge  concern- 
ing St.  Cyprian,  who  was  the  head  of  a  sect  in 
opposition  to  the  church  of  Rome,  in  the  question 
of  rebaptization ;  and  he  and  the  abettors,  Fir- 
milian,  and  the  other  bishops  of  Cappadocia,  and 
the  vicinage,  spoke  harsh  words  of  Stephen,  and 
such  as  became  them  not  to  speak  to  an  infallible 
doctor,  and  the  supreme  head  of  the  church.  I 
will  urge  none  of  them  to  the  disadvantage  of  that 
see,  but  only  note  the  satires  of  Firmilian  against 
him,  because  it  is  of  good  use  to  show  that  it  is 
possible  for  them  in  their  ill  carriage,  to  blast  the 
reputation  and  efficacy  of  a  great  authority :  for  he 

•  Proteatatio  contra  factum. 


236  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

sajs  that  the  church  did  pretend  the  authority  of 
the  apostles,  "  when,  in  many  of  its  religious 
ordinances,  it  departed  from  the  apostolic  rule, 
and  from  the  practice  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem, 
and  even  defamed  Peter  and  Paul  as  authorities."* 
And  a  little  after,  says  he,  "  I  disdain  the  open 
and  manifest  folly  of  Stephanus,  by  which  the 
verity  of  the  Christian  rock  is  annulled."t  Which 
words  say  plainly,  that  for  all  the  goodly  pretence 
of  apostolical  authority,  the  church  of  Rome  did 
then,  in  many  things  of  religion,  disagree  from 
divine  institution  (and  from  the  church  of  Jeru- 
salem, which  they  had  as  great  esteem  of,  for 
religion  sake,  as  of  Rome  for  its  principality) ;  and 
that  still,  in  pretending  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
they  dishonored  those  blessed  apostles,  and  de- 
stroyed the  honor  of  the  pretence,  by  their  untoward 
prevarication ;  which  words,  I  confess,  pass  my 
skill  to  reconcile  them  to  an  opinion  of  infallibility ; 
and  although  they  were  spoken  by  an  angry  per- 
son, yet  they  declare,  that  in  Africa  they  were  not 
then  persuaded  as  now  they  were  at  Rome  :  "  For 
Peter,  who  was  chosen  by  the  Lord,  did  not  vainly 
and  proudly  arrogate  to  himself  a  claim  to  pre-emi- 
ne.nce."t  That  was  their  belief  then,  and  how  the 
contrary  hath  grown  up  to  that  height  where  now 
it  is,  all  the  world  is  witness.  And  now  I  shall 
not  need  to  note  concerning  St.  Jerome,  that  he 

*  "  Cum  in  multis  sacramentis  divins  rei,  a  principio  dig- 
crepet,  et  ab  ecclesia  Hierosolymitana,  et  dafamet  Petrum  et. 
Paulum  tanqu^jn  authores." — Epist.  Firmiliani,  contr.  Steph. 
ad  Cyprian.  Vid.  etiam  Ep.  Cypriani  ad  Pompeium. 

t  "  Juste  dediguor  apertam  "et  manifostam  stultitiam  Ste- 
phani,  per  quam  Veritas  Christianae  petree  aboletur." 

J  "  Nam  nee  Petrus,  quern  primum  Dominus  elegit,  vendi- 
cayit  sibi  aliquid  insolenter,  aut  arroganter  assumpsit,  ut 
diceret  se  primatum  tenere." — Cyprian.  Epist.  ad  Quintura 
Fratrem. 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  237 

gave  a  compliment  to  Damasus  that  he  would  not 
have  given  to  Liberius :  Qui  tecum  non  colligit 
spar  git ;  *'  He  who  gathereth  not  with  you  scat- 
tereth."  For  it  might  be  true  enough  of  Damasus, 
who  was  a  good  bishop,  and  a  right  believer ;  but 
if  Liberius's  name  had  been  put  instead  of  Da- 
masus, the  case  had  been  altered  with  the  name ; 
for  St.  Jerome  did  believe,  and  write  it  so,  that 
Liberius  had  subscribed  to  Arianism.*  And  if 
either  he,  or  any  of  the  rest,  had  believed  the  pope 
could  not  be  a  heretic,  nor  his  faith  fail,  but  be  so 
good  and  of  so  competent  authority  as  to  be  a  rule 
to  Christendom,  why  did  they  not  appeal  to  the 
pope  in  the  Arian  controversy  ?  Why  was  the 
bishop  of  Rome  made  a  party  and  a  concurrent,  as 
other  good  bishops  were,  and  not  a  judge  and  an 
arbitrator  in  the  question  ?  Why  did  the  fathers 
prescribe  so  many  rules,  and  cautions,  and  provisos, 
for  the  discovery  of  heresy?  Why  were  the 
emperors  at  so  much  charge,  and  the  church  at  so 
much  trouble,  as  to  call  and  convene  in  councils 
respectively,  to  dispute  so  frequently,  to  write  so 
sedulously,  to  observe  all  advantages  against  their 
adversaries,  and  for  the  truth,  and  never  offered  to 
call  for  the  pope  to  determine  the  question  in  liis 
chair?  Certainly  no  way  could  have  been  so  ex- 
pedite, none  so  concluding  and  peremptory,  none 
could  have  convinced  so  certainly,  none  could  have 
triumphed  so  openly  over  all  discrepants  as  this, 
if  they  had  known  of  any  such  thing  as  his  being 
infallible,  or  that  he  had  been  appointed  by  Christ 
to'  be  the  judge  of  controversies.  And,  therefore, 
I  will  not  trouble  this  discourse,  to  excuse  any 
more  words,  either  pretended  or  really  said  to  this 
purpose  of  the  pope ;  for  they  would  but  make 

*  De  Script.  Eccles.  in  Fortunatiano. 


£38  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

books  swell,  and  the  question  endless.  I  shall 
only  to  this  purpose  observe,  that  the  old  writers 
were  so  far  from  believing  the  infallibility  of  the 
Roman  church  or  bishop,  that  many  bishops,  and 
many  churches,  did  actually  live  and  continue  out 
of  the  Roman  communion;  particularly  St.  Aus- 
tin,* who,  with  two  hundred  and  seventeen  bishops, 
and  their  successors,  for  one  hundred  years  together, 
stood  separate  from  that  church,  if  we  may  believe 
their  own  records :  so  did  Ignatius  of  Constanti- 
nople, St.  Chrysostom,  St.  Cyprian,  Firmilian, 
tliose  bishops  of  Asia  that  separated  in  the  question 
of  Easter,  and  those  of  Africa  in  the  question  of 
rebaptization  :  but,  besides  this,  most  of  them  had 
opinions  which  the  church  of  Rome  disavows  now, 
and,  therefore,  did  so  then,  or  else  she  hath  inno- 
vated in  her  doctrine ;  which,  though  it  be  most 
true  and  notorious,  I  am  sure  she  will  never 
confess.  But  no  excuse  can  be  made  for  St. 
Austin's  disagreeing,  and  contesting,  in  the  ques- 
tion of  appeals  to  Rome,  the  necessity  of  commu- 
nicating infants,  the  absolute  damnation  of  infants 
to  the  pains  of  hell,  if  they  die  before  baptism,  and 
divers  other  particulars.  It  was  a  famous  act  of 
the  bishops  of  Liguria  and  Istria,  who,  seeing  the 
pope  of  Rome  consenting  to  the  fifth  synod,  in 
disparagement  of  the  famous  council  of  Chalcedon, 
which  for  their  own  interests,  they  did  not  like  of, 
they  renounced  subjection  to  his  patriarchate, 
and  erected  a  patriarch  at  Acquileia,  who  was 

*  "  Ubi  ilia  Augustini  et  reliquorum  prudentia  ?  quis  jam 
ferat  crassissimae  ignorantiae  iliam  vocein  in  tot  et  tanlis 
Patribvis  ?" — Alan.  Cop.  Dialog,  p.  76,  77.  Vide  etiam 
Bonifac.  11.  Epist.  ad  Eulalium  Alexandrinum.  Lindanum 
Panopl.  lib.  iv.  c.  89.  in  fine  Salmeron.  torn.  xii.  Tract.  GS, 
§  ad  Canomen.  Sander,  de  visibili  Monarchia,  lib.  vii.  n.  411. 
Baron,  torn.  x.  a.  j?.  878, 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  239 

afterwards  translated  to  Venice,  where  his  name 
remains  to  this  day.  It  is  also  notorious,  that 
most  of  the  fathers  were,  of  opinion  that  the  souls 
of  the  faithful  did  not  enjoy  the  beatific  vision 
before  doomsday :  whether  Rome  was  then  of  that 
opinion  or  no,  I  know  not ;  I  am  sure  now  they 
are  not;  witness  the  councils  of  Florence  and 
Trent;  but  of  this  I  shall  give  a  more  full  account 
afterwards.  But  if  to  all  this  which  is  already 
noted,  we  add  that  great  variety  of  opinions 
amongst  the  fathers  and  councils,  in  assignatiorit 
of  the  canon,  they  not  consulting  with  the  bishop 
of  Rome,  or  any  of  them  thinking  themselves 
bound  to  follow  his  rule  in  enumeration  of  the 
books  of  Scripture,  I  tliink  no  more  need  to  be  said 
as  to  this  particular. 

8.  But  now,  if  after  all  this,  there  be  some  popes 
which  were  notorious  heretics,  and  preachers  of 
false  doctrine,  some  that  made  impious  decrees, 
both  in  faith  and  manners;  some  that  hayc 
determined  questions  VN^th  egregious  ignorance 
and  stupidity,  some  w^ith  apparent  sophistry,  and 
many  to  serve  their  own  ends  most  openly  ;  I  sup- 
pose then  the  infallibility  will  distknd,  and  we 
may  do  to  him  as  to  other  g-ood  bishops,  believe 
him  when  there  is  cause  ;  but  if  there  be  none, 
then  to  use  our  consciences.  "  For  it  cannot  be 
sufficient  for  a  christian,  that  the  pope  constantly 
affirms  the  propriety  of  his  own  command ;  he 
must  examine  for  himself,  and  form  his  opinion  by 
the  Divine  law."*  I  w^ould  not  instance  and 
repeat  the  errors  of  dead  bishops,  if  the  extreme 
boldness  of  the  pretence  did  not  make  it  necessary ; 

*  "Non  enim  salvat  Christianum  quod  pontifex  constanter 
affirmat  prseceptum  suum  esse  justum,  sed  oportet  illud  ex- 
aminaii,  et  se  juxta  regulam  supeiius  datam  dirigere." — 
Tract,  de  Interdict.  Compos,  a  Theol.  Venet.  prop.  13. 


240  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

but  if  we  may  believe  Tertullian,*  pope  Zephe- 
rinus  approved  the  prophesies  of  Montanus,  and 
upon  that  approbation  granted  peace  to  the  churches 
of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  till  Praxeas  persuaded  him 
to  revoke  his  act :  but  let  this  rest  upon  the  credit 
of  Tertullian,  whether  Zepherinus  were  a  Monta- 
nist  or  no ;  some  such  thing  there  was  for  certain.t 
Pope  VigiliusJ  denied  two  natures  in  Christ :  and 
in  his  epistle  to  Theodora,  the  empress,  anathe- 
matized all  them  that  said  he  had  two  natures  in 
one  person :  St.  Gregory  himself  permitted  priests 
to  give  confirmation;  which  is  all  one  as  if  he 
should  permit  deacons  to  consecrate,  they  being, 
by  divine  ordinance,  annexed  to  the  higher  orders  ; 
and,  upon  this  very  ground,  Adrianus  affirms,  that 
the  pope  may  err  in  his  definition  of  the  articles 
of  faith.§  And  that  we  may  not  fear  we  shall 
want  instances,  we  may,  to  secure  it,  take  their 
own  confession :  "  For  there  are  many  heretical 
decretals,"  says  Occham,  as  he  is  cited  by  Almain, 
"which,"  says  he,  for  his  own  particular,  "I 
firmly  believe ;  but  we  must  not  affirm  contrary  to 
what  is  decreed. "II  So  that  we  may  as  well  see 
that  it  is  certain  that  popes  may  be  heretics,  as 
that  it  is  dangerous  to  say  so  ;  and  therefore  there 
are  so  few  that  teach  it.  All  the  patriarchs,  and 
the  bishop  of  Rome  himself,  subscribed  toArianism 
(as  Baronius  confesses^);  and  Gratian  affirms  that 
pope  Anastasius  II,  was  stricken  of  God  for  com- 

*  Lib.  adver.  Praxeam. 

t  Vid.  Liberal,  in  Breviario,  c.  22. 

X  Durand.  iv.  dist.  7.  q.  4. 

§Quse.  de  Confirm,  art.  uit. 

II  "Nam  multse  sunt  decretales  haereticge,  el  finniter  hoc 
credo ;  sed  non  licet  dogmatizare  oppositum,  quoniam  sunt 
determinatae." — 3  Dist.  24.  q.  unica. 

1TA.  D.  367.  n.  41. 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  241 

municating  with  the  heretic  Photinus.*  I  know  it 
will  be  made  light  of,  that  Gregory  the  VII  saith, 
the  very  exorcists  of  the  Roman  church  are  superior 
to  princes.  But  what  shall  we  think  of  that  de- 
cretal of  Gregory  III,  who  wrote  to  Boniface,  his 
legate  in  Germany,  ''  That  they  whose  wives 
refused  them  conjugal  riglits,  on  account  of  some 
bodily  infirmity,  might  marry  others  ?t"  Was  this 
a  doctrine  fit  for  the  head  of  a  church,  and  infallible 
doctor  ?  It  was  plainly,  if  any  thing  ever  was, 
"  the  doctrine  of  devils,"  and  is  noted  for  such  by 
Gratian,  caus,  xxxii.  q.  7.  can.  Quod  proposuisti  ^ 
where  the  gloss  also  intimates,  that  the  same 
privilege  was  granted  to  the  Englishmen  by  Gre- 
gory, ''on  the  ground  of  their  being  but  newly 
converted."  And  sometimes  we  had  little  reasou 
to  expect  much  better ;  for,  not  to  instance  in  that 
learned  discourse  in  the  canon  law,  demajorifate 
et  obedientia;t  where  the  pope's  supremacy  over 
kings  is  proved  from  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis ; 
and  the  pope  is  the  sun,  and  the  emperor  is  the 
moon,  for  that  was  the  fancy  of  one  pope  perhaps, 
though  made  authentic  and  doctrinal  by  him  ;  it 
was  (if  it  be  possible)  more  ridiculous,  that  pope 
Innocent  III  urges,  that  the  Mosaical  law  was 
still  to  be  observed,  and  that  upon  this  argument 
saith  he,  *'  That  by  the  very  word  Deuteronomy, 
or  second  law,  it  is  shown,  that  what  is  there  de- 
termined ought  to  be  observed  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment."§    Worse  yet;    for  when    there   was  a 

*  Dist.  xix.  c.  9.  lib.  iv.  Ep.  2. 

t  "  Quod  illi  quorum  uxores  infirmitate  aliqua  morbidse 
debitum  reddere  noluemnt,  aliis  poterant  nubere?" — Vid. 
Corranz.  Sum.  Concil.  fol.  218.    Edit.  Antwerp. 

X  Cap.  per  venerabilem — qui  filii  sint  legitimi. 

§  "  Sane  cum  Deuteronomium  secunda  lex  interpretetur, 
ex  vi  vocabuU  comprobatur,  ut  quod  ibi  decernitur  in  Testa- 
mento  Novo  debeat  observari." 
21 


24^  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

corruption  crept  into  the  decree,  called  Sancta 
Romantt^^  where  instead  of  these  words,  Sedulii 
opus  heroicis  versibus  descriptum,  "  The  work  of 
Sedulius,  written  in  heroic  verses ;"  all  the  old 
copies,  till  of  late,  read  hssreticis  versibus  de- 
scriptum,  "  written  in  heretical  verses ;"  this  very 
mistake  made  many  wise  men  (as  Pierius  says±), 
yea,  pope  Adrian  VI,  no  worse  man,  believe  that 
all  poetry  was  heretical,  because  (forsooth)  pope 
Gelasius,  whose  decree  that  was,  although  he 
believed  Sedulius  to  be  a  good  catholic,  yet,  as 
they  thought,  he  concluded  his  verses  to  be  here- 
tical. But  these  were  ignorances;  it  hath  been 
worse  amongst  some  others,  whose  errors  have 
been  more  malicious.  Pope  Honorius  was  con- 
demned by  the  sixth  general  synod,  and  his  epis- 
tles burnt;  and  in  the  seventh  action  of  the  eighth 
synod,  the  acts  of  the  Roman  council  under  Adrian 
II  are  recited,  in  which  it  is  said,  that  Honorius 
was  justly  anathematised,  because  he  was  convict 
of  heresy.  Bellarmine  says,  it  is  probable  that 
pope  Adrian  and  the  Roman  council  were  deceived 
with  false  copies  of  the  sixth  synod,  and  that 
Honorius  was  no  heretic.  To  this  I  say,  that 
although  the  Roman  synod,  and  the  eighth  general 
synod,  and  pope  Adrian,  altogether,  are  better 
witnesses  for  the  thing  than  Bellarmine's  con- 
jecture is  against  it,  yet,  if  we  allow  his  con- 
jecture, we  shall  lose  nothing  in  the  whole ;  for 
either  the  pope  is  no  infallible  doctor,  but  may  be 
a  heretic,  as  Honorius  was ;  or  else  a  council  is  to 
us  no  infallible  determiner ;  I  say,  as  to  us,  for  if 
Adrian,  and  the  whole  Roman  council,  and  the 
eighth  general,  were  all  cozened  with  false  copies 

*  Dist.  XV.  apud  Gratian.  j  Oe  Sacerd.  barb. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  £45 

of  the  sixth  synod,  which  was  so  little  a  while 
before  them,  and  whose  acts  were  transacted  and 
kept  in  the  theatre  and  records  of  the  catholic 
church,  he  is  a  bold  man  that  will  be  confident 
that  he  hath  true  copies  now.  So  that  let  which 
they  please  stand  or  fall,  let  the  pope  be  a  heretic, 
or  the  councils  be  deceived  and  palpably  abused, 
(for  the  other,  we  will  dispute  it  upon  other 
instances  and  arguments,  when  we  shall  know 
which  part  they  will  choose),  in  the  mean  time, 
we  shall  get  in  the  general  what  we  lose  in  the 
particular.  This  only,  this  device  of  saying  the 
copies  of  the  councils  were  false,  was  the  strata- 
gem of  Albertus  Pighius,*  nine  hundred  years 
after  the  thing  was  done;  of  which  invention, 
Pighius  was  presently  admonished,  blamed,  and 
wished  to  recant.  Pope  Nicholas  explicated  the 
mystery  of  the  sacrament  with  so  much  ignorance 
and  zeal,  that,  in  condemning  Berengarius,  he 
taught  a  worse  impiety.  But  what  need  I  any 
more  instances  ?  It  is  a  confessed  case  by  Baro- 
nius,  by  Biel,  by  Stella,  Almain,  Occham,  and 
Canus,  and  generally  by  the  best  scholars  in  the 
church  of  Romet,  that  a  pope  may  be  a  heretic, 
and  that  some  of  them  actually  were  so ;  and  no 
less  than  three  general  councils  did  believe  the 
same  thing,  viz.,  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth,  as 
Bellarmine  is  pleased  to  acknowledge^ ;  and  the 
canon  si  Papa,  dist.  40,  affirms  it  in  express 
terms,  that  a  pope  is  judicable  and  punishable  in 
that  case.  But  there  is  no  wound  but  some 
empiric  or  other  will  pretend  to  cure  it ;  and  there 

*  Vid.  Diatrib.  de  act.  vi.  et  vii.  Synod.  Priefatione  ad 
Lectorem  et  Dominicum  Bannes,  xxii.  q.  1.  a.  10.  dub.  2. 
t  Picus  Mirand.  in  Exposit.  theorem.  4. 
t  De  Pontifice  Romano,  lib.  iv.  c.  11.  Resp.  ad  Arg.  4. 


244  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

is  a  cure  for  this  too.  For,  though  it  be  true  that 
if  a  pope  were  a  heretic,  the  church  might  depose 
him ;  yet  no  pope  can  be  a  heretic, — not  but  that 
the  man  may,  but  the  pope  cannot,  for  he  is  ipso 
facto  no  pope,  for  he  is  no  christian ;  so  Bellar- 
mine  :*  and  so  when  you  think  you  have  him  fast, 
he  is  gone,  and  nothing  of  the  pope  left.  But, 
who  sees  not  the  extreme  folly  of  this  evasion  ?  for, 
besides  that  out  of  fear  and  caution  he  grants  more 
than  he  needs,  more  than  was  sought  for  in  the 
question,  the  pope  hath  no  more  privilege  than  the 
abbot  of  Cluny ;  for  he  cannot  be  a  heretic,  nor  be 
deposed  by  a  council ;  for,  if  he  be  manifestly  a 
heretic,  he  is  ipso  facto  no  abbot,  for  he  is  no 
christian ;  and,  if  the  pope  be  a  heretic  privately 
and  occultly,  for  that  he  may  be  accused  and 
judged,  said  the  gloss  upon  the  canon  si  Papa^ 
dist.  40.  And  the  abbot  of  Cluny  and  one  of  his 
meanest  monks*  can  be  no  more,  therefore  the 
case  is  all  one.  But  this  is  fitter  to  make  sport 
with  than  to  interrupt  a  serious  discourse.!  And, 
therefore,  although  the  canon  Saneta  Romana  ap- 
proves all  the  decretals  of  popes,  yet  that  very 
decretal  hath  not  decreed  it  firm  enough,  but  that 
they  are  so  warily  received  by  them,  that  when 
they  list  tliey  are  pleased  to  dissent  from  them ; 
and  it  is  evident,  in  the  extravagant  of  Sixtus  IV. 
Com.  de  Reliquiis;X  who  appointed  a  feast  of  the 
immaculate  conception,  a  special  office  for  the 
day,  and  indulgences  enough  to  the  observers  of 
it;  and  yet  the  Dominicans  were  so  far  from 
believing  the  pope  to  be  infallible  and  his  decree 

*  Lib.  ii.  c.  30,  ubi  supra,  §  est  ergo. 

t  Vide  Alphons.  a  Castr.  lib.  i.  adv.  Haeres.  c.  4, 

X  Vid.  etiam  Innocentium,  Serm.  2.  de  Consecrat.  Pontif. 

act.  vii.  viii.  Synodic  et  Concil.  S.subSyinraadio.  CoUat.  viii. 

can.  12. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  245 

authentic,  that  they  declaimed  against  it  in  their 
pulpits  so  furiously  and  so  long,  till  they  were 
prohibited,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to  say 
the  Virgin  Mary  was  conceived  in  original  sin. 
Now,  what  solemnity  can  be  more  required  for 
the  pope  to  make  a  cathedral  determination  of  an 
article.^  The  article  was  so  concluded,  that  a 
feast  was  instituted  for  its  celebration,  and  pain 
of  excommunication  threatened  to  them  which 
should  preach  the  contrary.  Nothing  more  solemn, 
nothing  more  confident  and  severe  :  and  yet,  after 
all  this,  to  show  that  whatsoever  those  people 
would  have  us  to  believe,  they  will  believe  what 
they  list  themselves ;  this  thing  was  not  deter- 
mined defide,  paith  Victorellus.  Nay,  the  autiior 
of  the  gloss  of  the  canon  law  hath  these  express 
words :  "  With  regard  to  the  feast  of  the  con- 
ception, nothing  is  said,  because  it  is  not  kept,  as 
it  is  in  many  places,  and  especially  in  England; 
and  the  reason  is,  that  the  Virgin  was  conceived 
in  sin,  as  were  the  other  saints."*  And  the  com- 
missaries of  Sixtus  V,  and  Gregory  XIII,  did  not 
expunge  these  words,  but  left  them  upon  record, 
not  only  against  a  received  and  more  approved 
opinion  of  the  Jesuits  and  Franciscans,  but  also  in 
plain  defiance  of  a  decree  made  by  their  visible 
head  of  the  church,  who  (if  ever  any  thing  was 
decreed  by  a  pope  with  an  intent  to  oblige  all 
Christendom)  decreed  this  to  that  purpose.t 
So  that  without  taking  particular  notice  of  it, 

*  "  De  festo  Conceptionis  nihil  dicitur,  quia  celebrandum 
non  est,  sicut  in  multis  regionibus  sit,  ex  maxime  in  Anglia; 
et  hffic  est  ratio,  quia  in  peccatis  concepta  fuit  sicut  et  caeteri 
Sancti." — De  Angelo  custod.  fol.  59.  de  Consecrat.  dist.  3, 
can.  pronunci  and  gloss,  verb.  Nativit. 

i  "  Hac  in  perpetuum  valitura  constitutione  statuircus," 
&c.— De  Reliquiis,  &<c.  Extrav.  Com.  Sixt.  IV.  c.  1. 
21* 


246 


THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 


that  egregious  sophistry  and  flattery  of  the  late 
writers  of  the  Roman  church  is  in  this  instance, 
besides  divers  others  before  mentioned,  clearly 
made  invalid.  For,  here  the  bishop  of  Rome,  not 
as  a  private  doctor,  but  as  pope,  not  by  declaring 
his  own  opinion,  but  with  an  intent  to  oblige 
the  churcli,  gave  sentence  in  a  question  which  the 
Dominicans  still  account  undetermined.  And 
every  decretal  recorded  in  the  canon  law,  if  It  be 
false  in  the  matter,  is  just  such  another  instance. 
And  Alphonsus  a  Castro  says  it  to  the  same 
purpose,  in  the  instance  of  Celestine  dissolving 
marriages  for  heresy  :  *'  Neither  ought  this  error  of 
Celestine  to  be  imputed  to  negligence  alone,  so 
that  we  may  say  he  erred  as  a  private  individual, 
and  not  as  a  pope;  because  such  a  decision  as 
this  of  his  is  found  in  the  ancient  decretals,  in  the 
chapter  concerning  the  conversion  of  infidels 
which  I  myself  have  seen  and  read."*  And, 
therefore,  it  is  a  most  intolerable  folly  to  pretend 
that  the  pope  cannot  err  in  his  chair,  though  he 
may  err  in  his  closet,  and  may  maintain  a  false 
opinion  even  to  his  death;  for,  besides  that  it  is 
sottish  to  think  that  either  he  would  not  have  tlie 
world  of  his  own  opinion  (as  all  men  naturally 
would),  or  that  if  he  were  set  in  his  chair,  he  would 
determine  c  utrary  to  himself  in  his  study  (and 
therefore  represent  it  as  possible,  they  are  fain  to 
fl)'-  to  a  mira;  b,  for  which  they  have  no  color, 
neither  instructions,  nor  insinuation,  nor  warrant, 
nor  promise),  besides  that  it  were  impious    and 

*  "  Neque  Cselestini  error  talis  fuit  qui  soli  negligentise 
imputari  debeat,  ita  ut  ilium  errasse  dicamus  velut  privatam 
personam  et  non  ut  papam,  quoniam  hujusmodi  Ca?lestlni 
definitio  habetur  in  antiquis  decretalibus,  in  cap.  Laudabilenrj, 
titulo  de  converaione  iniideliura  ;  quam  ego  ipse  vidi  et  legi." 
— Lib.  i.  adv.  Hseres.  cap.  4. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  24? 

unreasonable  to  depose  him  for  heresy,  who  may 
so  easily,  even  by  setting  himself  in  his  chair, 
and  reviewing  his  theorems,  be  cured;  it  is  also 
against  a  very  great  experience  :  for,  besides  the 
former  allegations,  it  is  most  notorious,  that  Pope 
Alexander  III,  in  a  council  at  Rome  of  three 
hundred  archbishops  and  bishops,  A.  D.  1179, 
condemned  Peter  Lombard  of  heresy  in  a  matter 
of  great  concernment,  no  less  than  something  about 
the  incarnation  ;  from  which  sentence  he  was,  after 
thirty-six  years  abiding  it,  absolved  by  Pope  In- 
nocent III,  without  repentance  or  dereliction  of 
the  opinion.  Now  if  this  sentence  was  not  a 
cathedral  dictate,  as  solemn  and  great  as  could 
be  expected,  or  as  is  said  to  be  necessary  to  oblige 
ail  Christendom,  let  the  great  hyperaspists  of  the 
Roman  church  be  judges,  who  tell  us  that  a  par- 
ticular council,  with  the  pope^s  confirmation,  is 
made  oscumenical  by  adoption,  and  is  infallible, 
and  obliges  all  Christendom;*  so  Bellarmine ; 
and  therefore,  he  says,  that  it  is  **  rash,  erroneous, 
and  bordering  onheresy,"t  to  deny  it:  but  whether 
it  be  or  not  it  is  all  one,  as  to  my  purpose  ;  for  it  is 
certain  that  in  a  particular  council,  confirmed  by 
the  pope,  if  ever,  tlien  and  there  the  pope  sat  him- 
self in  his  chair;  and  it  is  as  certain  that  he  sat 
besides  the  cushion,  and  determined  ridiculously 
and  falsely  in  this  case :  but  this  is  a  device  for 
which  there  is  no  Scripture,  no  tradition,  no  one 
dogmatical  resolute  saying  of  any  father,  Greek  or 
Latin,  for  above  one  thousand  years  after  Christ ; 
and  themselves,  when  they  list,  can  acknowledge 
as  much.!     And,  therefore,  Bellarmine's  saying  I 

,  *  Lib.  ii.  de  Concil,  cap.  5, 
t  "Temerarium,  erroneum,  et  proximum  haeresi." 
X  De  Pontif.  Rom.  c.  14,  <^  Respondeo.     In  3  sent.  d.  24. 

q.  in  con.  6.  dub,  6.  in  fine. 


248  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

perceive,  is  believed  by  them  to  be  true,  that  there 
are  many  things  in  the  decretal  epistles  which 
make  not  articles  to  be  de  fide.  And,  therefore, 
*'  We  are  not  implicitly  to  believe  whatever 
the  pope  decrees,"*  says  Almain.  And  this  serves 
their  turns  in  every  thing  they  do  not  like  ;  and, 
therefore,  I  am  resolved  it  shall  serve  my  turn 
also  for  something;  and  that  is,  that  the  matter 
of  the  pope's  infallibility  is  so  ridiculous  and 
improbable,  that  they  do  not  believe  it  themselves. 
Some  of  them  clearly  practised  the  contrary ;  and 
although  pope  Leo  X  hath  determined  the  pope 
to  be  above  a  council,  yet  the  Sorbonne  to  tliis 
day  scorn  it  at  the  very  heart.  And  I  might 
urge  upon  them  that  scorn  that  Almain  truly 
enough,  by  way  of  argument,  alleges.t  It  is  a 
wonder  that  they  who  affirm  the  pope  cannot  err  in 
judgment,  do  not  also  affirm  that  he  cannot  sin  : 
they  are  like  enough  to  say  so,  says  he,  if  the 
vicious  lives  of  the  popes  did  not  make  a  daily 
confutation  of  such  flattery.  Now,  for  my  own 
particular,  I  am  as  confident,  and  think  it  as 
certain,  that  popes  are  actually  deceived  in  matters 
of  Christian  doctrine,  as  that  they  do  prevaricate 
the  laws  of  Christian  piety ;  and  therefore,  Alphon- 
sus  a  Castro  calls  them  "  impudent  flatterers  of 
the  pope,":}:  that  ascribe  to  him  infallibility  in 
judgment,  or  interpretation  of  Scripture. 

But,  if  themselves  did  believe  it  heartily,  what 
excuse  is  there  in  the  world  for  the  strange  un- 


*  "  Non  est  necessario  credendum  determinatis  persum- 
mwm  pontificem." 

t  De  Authorit.  Eccles.  cap.  10,  in  fine. 

X  "  Impudentes  papse  assentatores." — Lib.  i.  c.  4,  ad  vers. 
Hseres.  edit.  Paris,  1534.  In  seqq.  non  expurgantur  ista 
verba,  at  idem  sensus  manet. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  249 

charitableness  or  supine  negligence  of  the  popes, 
that  thej  do  not  set  themselves  in  their  chair,  and 
write  infallible  commentaries,  and  determine  all 
controversies  without  error,  and  blast  all  heresies 
with  the  word  of  their  mouth,  declare  what  is  and 
what  is  not  cle  fide,  that  their  disciples  and  con- 
fidents may  agree  upon  it ;  reconcile  the  Francis- 
cans and  Dominicans,  and  expound  all  mysteries? 
For  it  cannot  be  imagined,  but  he  that  was  endued 
witli  so  supreme  power  in  order  to  so  great  ends, 
was  also  fitted  with  proportionable,  that  is  ex- 
traordinary, personal  abilities,  succeeding  and 
derived  upon  the  persons  of  all  the  popes.  And 
then  the  doctors  of  his  church  need  not  trouble 
themselves  with  study,  nor  writing  explications 
of  Scripture,  but  might  wholly  attend  to  practical 
devotion,  and  leave  all  their  scholastical  wrang- 
lings,  the  distinguishing  opinions  of  their  orders; 
and  they  might  have  a  fine  church,  something  like 
fairy  land,  or  Lucian's  kingdom  in  the  moon. 
But,  if  they  say  they  cannot  do  this  when  they 
list,  but  when  they  are  moved  to  it  by  the  Spirit, 
then  we  are  never  the  nearer;  for  so  may  the 
bishop  of  Angouleme  write  infallible  commen- 
taries when  the  Holy  Ghost  moves  him  to  it;  for 
I  suppose  his  motions  are  not  ineffectual,  but  he 
will  sufficiently  assist  us  in  performing  of  what 
he  actually  moves  us  to;  but,  among  so  many 
hundred  decrees  which  the  popes  of  Rome  have 
made  or  confirmed  and  attested  (which  is  all  one), 
I  would  fain  know  in  how  many  of  them  did 
the  Holy  Ghost  assist  them  }  If  they  know  it, 
let  them  declare  it,  that  it  may  be  certain  which 
of  their  decretals  are  de  fide;  for  as  yet  none  of 
their  own  church  knows.  If  they  do  not  know, 
then  neither  can  we  know  it  from  them,  and  then 


250  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

we  are  uncertain  as  ever;  and,  besides,  the  Holy 
Ghost  maj  possibly  move  him,  and  he  by  his 
ignorance  of  it,  may  neglect  so  profitable  a  motion, 
and  then  his  promise  of  infallible  assistance  will 
be  to  very  little  purpose,  because  it  is  with  very 
much  fallibility  applicable  to  practice.  And, 
therefore,  it  is  absolutely  useless  to  any  man  or  any 
church ;  because,  suppose  it  settled  in  Thesi,  that 
the  pope  is  infallible,  yet  whether  he  will  do  his 
duty  and  perform  those  conditions  of  being  assisted 
which  are  required  of  him,  or  whether  he  be  a  secret 
Simoniac  (for  if  he  be,  he  is  ipso  facto  no  pope), 
or  whether  he  be  a  bishop,  or  priest,  or  a  Christian, 
being  all  uncertain  ;  every  one  of  these  depending 
upon  the  intention  and  power  of  the  baptizer  or 
ordainer,  which  also  are  fallible,  because  they 
depend  upon  the  honesty  and  power  of  other 
men,  we  cannot  be  infallibly  certain  of  any  pope 
that  he  is  infallible;  and,  therefore,  when  our 
questions  are  determined,  we  are  never  the  nearer, 
but  may  hug  ourselves  in  an  imaginary  truth ;  the 
certainty  of  finding  truth  out  depending  upon  so 
many  fallible  and  contingent  circumstances.  And, 
therefore,  the  thing,  if  it  were  true,  being  so  to  no 
purpose,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  God  never  gave 
a  power  so  impertinently,  and  from  whence  no 
benefit  can  accrue  to  the  Christian  church  for  whose 
use  and  benefit,  if  at  all,  it  must  needs  have  been 
appointed. 

But  I  am  too  long  in  this  impertinency.  If  I 
were  bound  to  call  any  man  master  upon  earth, 
and  to  believe  him  upon  his  own  affirmative  and 
authority,  I  would,  of  all  men,  least  follow  him 
that  pretends  he  is  infallible  and  cannot  prove  it. 
For  that  he  cannot  prove  it,  makes  me  as  uncertain 
as   ever;  and  that   lie   pretends   to   infallibility 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  251 

makes  him  careless  of  using  such  means  which 
will  morallj  secure  those  wise  persons,  who, 
knowing  their  own  aptness  to  be  deceiveclj  use 
what  endeavors  they  can  to  secure  themselves 
from  error,  and  so  become  the  better  and  more 
probable  guides. 

Well !  thus  far  we  are  come  ;  although  we  are 
secured  in  fundamental  points  from  involuntary 
error,  by  the  plain,  express,  and  dogmatical  places 
of  Scripture,  yet,  in  other  things,  we  are  not,  but 
may  be  invincibly  mistaken,  because  of  the  ob- 
scurity and  difficulty  in  the  controverted  parts  of 
Scripture,  by  reason  of  the  uncertainty  of  the 
means  of  its  interpretation ;  since  tradition  is  of 
an  uncertain  reputation,  and  sometimes  evidently 
false ;  councils  are  contradictory  to  each  otlier, 
and  therefore,  certainly  are  equally  deceived 
many  of  them,  and  therefore  all  may ;  and  then 
the  popes  of  Rome  are  very  likely  to  mislead  us, 
but  cannot  ascertain  us  of  truth  in  matter  of  ques- 
tion ;  and  in  this  world  we  believe  in  part,  and  pro- 
phesy in  part ;  and  this  imperfection  shall  never  be 
done  away,  till  we  be  translated  to  a  more  glorious 
state  ;  either  we  must  throw  our  chances,  and  get 
truth  by  accident  or  predestination,  or  else  we 
must  lie  safe  in  a  mutual  toleration,  and  private 
liberty  of  persuasion,  unless  some  other  anchor 
can  be  thought  upon,  where  we  may  fasten  our 
floating  vessels,  and  ride  safely. 


252  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION  VIII. 

Of  the  Disability  of  Fathers  or  Writers  Ecclesias- 
tical, to  determine  our  Questions,  with  certainty 
and  truth. 

There  are  some  that  think  thej  can  determine 
all  questions  in  tlie  world  by  two  or  three  sayings 
of  the  Fatiiers,  or  by  the  consent  of  so  many  as 
they  will  please  to  call  a  concurrent  testimony. 
But  this  consideration  will  soon  be  at  an  end ;  for, 
if  the  fathers,  when  tliey  are  witnesses  of  tradition, 
do  not  always  speak  truth,  as  it  happened  in  the 
case  of  Papias  and  his  numerous  followers,  for 
almost  three  ages  together,  then  is  their  testimony 
more  improbable  when  they  dispute  or  write  com- 
mentaries. 

2.  The  fathers  of  tlie  first  ages  spake  unitedly 
concerning  divers  questions  of  secret  tlieology,  and 
yetwere  afterwards  contradicted  by  one  personage 
of  great  reputation,  whose  credit  had  so  much  in- 
fluence upon  the  world,  as  to  make  the  contrary 
opinion  become  popular  :  why,  then,  may  not  we 
have  the  same  liberty,  when  so  plain  an  uncertainty 
is  in  their  persuasions,  and  so  great  contrariety  in 
their  doctrines  ?  But  this  is  evident  in  the  case 
of  absolute  predestination,  which,  till  St.  Austin's 
time,  no  man  preached,  but  all  taught  the  contrary ; 
and  yet  the  reputation  of  this  one  excellent  man 
altered  the  scene.  But,  if  he  might  dissent  from 
so  general  a  doctrine,  why  may  not  we  do  so  too, 
it  being  pretended  that  he  is  so  excellent  a  prece- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIXG.  253 

dent  to  be  followed,  if  we  have  the  same  reason  ? 
He  had  no  more  authority  nor  dispensation  to  dis- 
sent, than  any  bishop  hath  now.  And  therefore 
St.  Austin  hath  dealt  ingenuously  ;  and  as  he  took 
this  liberty  to  himself,  so  he  denies  it  not  to  others, 
but,  indeed,  forces  them  to  preserve  their  own 
liberty.  And,  therefore,  when  St.  Jerome'"  had  a 
great  mind  to  follow  the  fathers  in  a  point  that  he 
fancied,  and  the  best  security  he  had  was,  Paliaris 
me  cum  tcdibus  err  arc,  ''  You  may  allow  me  to  err 
with  such  men,"  St.  Austin  would  not  endure  it, 
but  answered  his  reason,  and  neglected  the  autho- 
rity. And  therefore  it  had  been  most  unreasona- 
ble that  we  should  do  that  now,  though  in  his 
behalf,  winch  he,  towards  greater  personages  (for 
so  they  were  then),  at  that  time  judged  to  be  un- 
reasonable. It  is  a  plain  recession  from  antiquity, 
wliich  was  determined  by  the  council  of  Florence, 
''  that  the  souls  of  the  saints  are  received  imme- 
diately in  heaven,  and  clearly  behold  God  himself, 
three  in  one  ;"t  as  who  please  to  try,  may  see  it 
dogmatically  resolved  to  the  contrary  by  Justin 
Marty ivt  [r8gneus,§  by  Origen,!|  St.  Chrysostom,^ 
Theodoret,*  ••  Arethas  Ca3sariensis,tt  Euthymius,fl: 
who  may  answer  for  the  Greek  church;  and  it  is 
plain  tliat  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  Greek  church, 
by  that  great  difficulty  the  Romans  had  of  bringing 
the  Greeks  to  subscribe  to  the  Florentine  council, 
where  the  Latins  acted  their  masterpeice  of  wit 
and  stratagem,  the  greatest  that  hath  been  till  the 
famous  and  superpolitic  design  of  Trent.     And  for 

*  Sess.  ult. 

t  "Piorum  animas  purgatas,  &c.  mox  in  ccelum  recipi,  et 
intueri  clare  ipsum  Deum  trinum  et  enum  sicuti  est," 
X  Q.  60,  ad.  Christian.     §  Lib.  v.      ||  Horn.  vii.  in  Levit 
H  Horn,  xxxix.  in  1  Cor.  **  In  c.  11,  ad.  Heb 

tt  Inc.  6,  ad  Apoc.  Jf  In  16,  c.  Luc. 

22 


254  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  Latin  church,  Tertulliaii,'^  St.  Auibrose^t  St, 
Austin;±  St.  Hilary, §  Prudcntius.||  Lactantius,^ 
Victorinus  Martyr,**'  and  St.  Bernard,tt  are  known 
to  be  of  opinion  that  the  souls  of  the  saints 
are  in  abditis  rcceptaculis  et  cxterioribus  atriis, 
"in  secret  receptacles  and  outer  courts,'*  where 
they  expect  the  resurrection  of  their  bodies, 
and  the  olorification  of  their  souls;  and  though 
they  all  believe  them  to  be  h.appy,  yd  tiiey  enjoy 
not  the  beatific  vision  before  the  resurrection. 
Now,  there  being  so  full  a  consent  of  Fathers  (for 
many  more  may  be  added),  and  the  decree  of  pope 
John  XXn  besides,  who  was  so  confident  for  hi& 
decree,  that  he  commanded  the  university  of  Parisj 
to  swear  that  they  would  preach  it  and  no  other, 
and  that  none  should  be  promoted  to  degrees  in 
theology  that  did  not  swear  the  like  (as  Occhani,i|. 
Gerson,§§  MarsiliusJH  and  Adrianus,^ <^  rc[)ort). 
Since  it  is  esteemed  lawful  to  dissent  from  all  these, 
I  hope  no  man  will  be  so  unjust  to  press  other  men 
to  consent  to  an  authority  which  he  himself  judges 
to  be  incompetent.  These  two  great  instances 
are  enough ;  but  if  more  were  necessary,  I  could 
instance,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Chiliasts,  maintained 
by  the  second  and  third  centuries,  and  disavowed 
ever  since;  in  the  doctrine  of  communicating 
infants,  taught  and  practised  as  necessary  by  the 
fourth   and  fifth    centuries,  and  detested  by  the 

*  Lib.  iv.  adv.  Mar.  t  Lib.  ii.  de.  Cain.  c.  2. 

X  Ep.  iii.  ad  Fortunalianum.  §  In  Psal.  138. 

11  De  exeq.  Defunctor.    II  Lib.  vii.  c.  21.    **  In  c.  6,  Apoc. 

tt  Serm.  iii.  de  Om.  Sanctis.  Vid.  enim  St.  Aui:;.  in 
Enchir.  c.  108,  et  lib.  xii.  de  Civit.  Dei.  c.  9,  etin  Ps.  36,  et: 
in  lib.  i.  Retract,  c.  14.  Vid.  insuper  testiinonia  qiue  collept 
Spala.  lib.  v.  c.  8.  n.  98,  de  Repub.  Eccl.  et  Sixt.  Senen. 
lib.  6,  Annot.  345. 

Xt  In  Oper.  nonap^.  dierum.  §§  Serm.  de  Pascliat. 

nil  In  iv.  sent.  q.  13.  a  3.        "iITI  In  4,  de  Sacram.  Cofirmat. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    rUOPIIESYING.  255 

Latin  church  in  all  the  following  ages ;  in  the 
variety  of  opinions  concerning  the  very  form  of 
baptism  ;  some  keeping  close  to  the  institution  and 
the  words  of  its  first  sanction,  others  affirming  it 
to  be  sufficient,  if  it  be  administered  in  nomine 
Christii--  particularly  St.  Ambrose,  pope  Nicho- 
las I.  V.  Bedet  and  St.  Bernard.^  besides  some 
writers  of  after  ages,  as  Hugo  de  S.  Victore,  and 
the  doctors  generally,  his  contemporaries.  And 
it  would  not  be  inconsiderable  to  observe,  that  if 
any  synod,  general,  national,  or  provincial,  be  re- 
ceded from  bytlie  church  of  the  later  age  (as  there 
have  been  very  many),  then,  so  many  fathers  as 
were  then  assembled  and  united  in  opinion,  are 
esteemed  no  authority  to  determine  our  persua- 
sions. Now,  suppose  two  hundred  fathers  assem- 
bled in  such  a  council,  if  all  they  had  writ  books 
and  authorities,  two  hundred  authorities  had  been 
alleged  in  confirmation  of  an  opinion,  it  would  have 
made  a  mighty  noise,  and  loaded  any  man  with  an 
insupportable  prejudice  that  should  dissent :  and 
yet  every  opinion  m.aintained  against  the  authoritv 
of  any  one  council,  though  but  provincial,  is,  in  its 
proportion,  such  a  violent  recession  and  neglect  of 
the  authority  and  doctrine  of  so  many  fathers  as 
were  then  assembled,  vvdio  did  as  much  declare 
their  opinion  in  those  assemblies,  by  their  suffrages, 
as  if  they  had  writ  it  in  so  many  books;  and  their 
opinion  is  more  considerable  in  the  assembly  than 
in  their  writings,  because  it  was  more  deliberate, 
assisted,  united,  and  dogmatical.  In  pursuance 
of  this  observation,  it  is  to  be  noted,  bv  way  of 
instance,  that  St.  Austin,  and  two  hundred  and 

*  De  Consecrat.  dist-  4,  c.  a  quod  in  Judeo. 
t  In  c.  10,  Act.       '  t  Ep.  340. 


256  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

seventeen  bishops,  and  all  their  successors,'  for  a 
Avhole  age  together,  did  consent  in  denying  appeals 
to  Rome  ;  and  yet  the  authority  of  so  many  /withers 
,  (all  true  catholics)  is  of  no  force  now  at  Rome,  in 
this  question;  but  if  it  be  in  a  matter  they  like, 
one  of  these  fathers  alone  is  sufficient.  The  doc- 
trine of  St.  Austin  alone  brought  in  the  festival 
and  veneration  of  the  assumption  of  the  blessed 
^.  .virgin,  and  the  hard  sentence  passed  at  Rome  upon 
^  unbaptized  infants,  and  the  Dominican  opinion 
concerning  predetermination,  derived  from  him 
alone,  as  from  their  original;  so  that  if  a  father 
speaks  for  them,  it  is  wonderful  to  see  what  tra- 
gedies are  stirred  up  against  them  that  dissent,  as 
is  to  be  seen  in  that  excellent  nothing  of  Campian's 
ten  reasons.  But  if  the  liithers  be  against  them, 
then  "  the  fatliers  have,  in  some  things,  mistaken 
in  no  slight  deg-ree,  and  some  of  them  most 
egregiously,"t  says  Bellarmine;  and  it  is  certain, . 
the  chiefest  of  them  have  foully  erred.  Nay,  Posa, 
Salmeron,  and  Wadding,  in  the  question  of  the 
immaculate  conception,  make  no  scruple  to  dissent 
from  antiquity,  to  prefer  new  doctors  before  the 
old;  and,  to  justify  themselves,  bring  instances  in 
which  the  church  of  Rome  had  determined  against 
the  fathers.  And  it  is  not  excuse  enough  to  say 
that,  singly,  the  fathers  may  err;  but  if  they  con- 
cur they  are  certain  testimony:  for  there  is  no 

*  Vid.  Epist.  Bonifacii  II,  apud  Nicolinum,  torn.  ii.  Con- 
cil.  pa<^-e  544,  et  exemplar  preciim  Eulalii  apud  eundem,  ibid. 
p.  525.  Qui  anathematizat  omnes  decessores  suos,  qui,  in  ea 
causa,  Roma  se  opponendo  rectce  fidei  regulam  prcevaricati 
sunt ;  inter  quos  tamen  fuit  Au^ustinus,  quern  pro  maledicto 
Caslestinus  tacite  agnoscit,  admitlendo  ?c.  exemplar  precum. 
Vid.  Doctor.  Marta.  de  Jurisdict.  part.  iv.  p.  273,  et  Erasm. 
Annot.  in  Hieron.  preefat.  in  Daniel. 

t  "  Patres  in  quibusdam  non  levity  lapsi  sunt ;  constat, 
quosdam  ex  praecipuis. — De.  Verb.  Dei, Tib.  iii.  c.  10,  §  dices. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  257 

question  this  day  disputed,  by  persons  that  are 
willing  to  be  tried  by  the  fathers,  so  generally 
attested  on  either  side  as  some  points  are,  which 
both  sides  dislike  severally  or  conjunctly :  and 
therefore,  it  is  not  honest  for  either  side  to  press 
the  authority  of  the  fathers,  as  a  concluding 
argument  in  matter  of  dispute,  unless  themselves 
will  be  content  to  submit,  in  all  things,  to  the 
testimony  of  an  equal  number  of  them;  which  I 
am  certain  neither  side  will  do. 

3.  If  I  should  reckon  all  the  particular  reasons 
against  the  certainty  of  this  topic,  it  would  be  more 
than  needs  as  to  this  question ;  and  therefore  I 
will  abstain  from  all  disparagement  of  those  worthy 
personages,  who  were  excellent  lights  to  their 
several  dioceses  and  cures.  And  therefore  I  will 
not  instance  that  Clemens  Alexandrinus*  taught, 
that  Christ  felt  no  hunger  or  thirst,  but  eat  only  to 
make  demonstration  of  the  verity  of  his  human 
nature;  nor  that  St.  Hilary  taught  that  Christ  in 
his  sufferings,  had  no  sorrow ;  nor  that  Origen 
taught  the  pains  of  hell  not  to  have  an  eternal 
duration  ;  nor  that  St.  Cyprian  taught  rebaptiza- 
tion ;  nor  that  Athenagoras  condemned  second 
marriages ;  nor  that  St.  John  Damascen  said, 
Christ  only  prayed  in  appearance,  not  really  and 
in  truth :  I  will  let  them  all  rest  in  peace,  and 
their  memories  in  honor.  For  if  I  should  inquire 
into  the  particular  probations  of  this  article,  I 
must  do  to  them  as  I  should  be  forced  to  do  now  : 
if  any  man  should  say  that  the  writings  of  the 
schoolmen  were  excellent  argument  and  authority 
to  determine  men's  persuasions,  I  must  consider 
their  writings,  and  observe  their  defailances,  their 
contradictions,  the  weakness  of  their  arguments, 

*  Strom,  lib,  iii.  et  vi, 

22-* 


258  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS, 

the  misallegations  of  Scripture,  their  inconse- 
quent deductions,  their  false  opinions,  and  all  the 
weaknesses  of  humanitj,  and  the  failings  of  their 
persons,  which  no  good  man  is  willing  to  do, 
unless  he  be  compelled  to  it  bj  a  pretence  that 
they  are  infallible,  or  that  they  are  followed  by 
men  even  into  errors  or  impiety.  And,  therefore, 
since  there  is  enough  in  the  former  instances  to 
cure  any  such  mispersuasion  and  prejudice,  I  will 
instance,  in  tlie  innumerable  particularities  that 
might  persuade  us  to  keep  our  liberty  entire,  or  to 
use  it  discreetly.  For  it  is  not  to  be  denied  but 
that  great  advantages  are  to  be  made  by  their 
writings,  etprobabile  est  quod  omnibus,  quodpluri- 
bus,  quod  sapientibus  videtur ;  if  one  wise  man 
says  a  thing,  it  is  an  argument  to  me  to  believe  it 
in  its  degree  of  probation ;  that  is,  proportionable 
to  such  an  assent  as  the  authority  of  a  v/ise  man 
can  produce,  and  when  there  is  nothing  against  it 
that  is  greater;  and  so  in  proportion,  higher  and 
higher,  as  more  wise  men  (such  as  the  old  doctors 
were)  do  affirm  it.  But  that  which  I  complain  of 
is,  that  we  look  upon  wise  men  that  lived  long 
ago,  with  so  much  veneration  and  mistake,  that 
we  reverence  them,  not  for  having  been  wise  men, 
but  that  they  lived  long  since.  But,  when  the 
question  is  concerning  authority,  there  must  be 
something  to  build  it  on ;  a  Divine  commandment, 
human  sanction,  excellency  of  spirit,  and  greatness 
of  understanding,  on  which  things  all  human 
authority  is  regularly  built.  But,  now,  if  we  had 
lived  in  their  times  (for  so  we  must  look  upon 
them  now,  as  they  did  who,  without  prejudice, 
beheld  them),  I  suppose  we  should  then  have 
beheld  them  as  we,  in  England,  look  on  those 
prelates  who  are  of  great  reputation  for  learning 


THE  LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  259 

and  sanctity :  here  only  is  the  difference ;  when 
persons  are  living,  their  authority  is  depressed  by 
their  personal  defailances  and  the  contrary  in- 
terests of  their  contemporaries,  which  disband, 
when  they  are  dead,  and  leave  their  credit  entire, 
upon  the  reputation  of  those  excellent  books  and 
monuments  of  learniiiG:  and  piety  which  are  left 
behind:  but  beyond  this,  why  the  bishop  of  Hippo 
shall  have  greater  authority  than  the  bishop  of  the 
Canaries,  ceteris  paribus,  I  understand  not.  For 
did  they  that  lived  (to  instance)  in  St.  Austin's 
time,  believe  all  that  he  wrote  ?  If  they  did  they 
were  much  to  blame,  or  else  himself  was  to  blame 
for  retracting  much  of  it  a  little  before  his  death  : 
and  if,  while  he  lived,  his  affirmative  was  no  more 
authority  than  derives  from  the  credit  of  one  very 
wise  man,  against  whom,  also,  very  wise  men 
were  opposed,  I  know  not  why  his  authority 
should  prevail  further  now ;  for  there  is  nothing 
added  to  the  strength  of  his  reason  since  that  time, 
but  only  that  he  hath  been  in  great  esteem  with 
posterity.  And  if  that  be  all,  why  the  opinion  of 
the  following  ages  shall  be  of  more  force  than  the 
opinion  of  the  first  ages,  against  whom  St.  Austin, 
in  many  things,  clearly  did  oppose  himself,  I  see 
no  reason;  or  whether  the  first  ages  were  against 
him,  or  no,  yet  that  he  is  approved  by  the  follow- 
ing ages  is  no  better  argument ;  for  it  makes  his 
authority  not  to  be  innate,  but  derived  from  the 
opinion  of  others,  and  so  to  be  precarious,  and  to 
depend  upon  others,  who,  if  they  should  change 
their  opinions,  and  such  examples  there  have  been 
many,  then  there  were  nothing  left  to  urge  our 
consent  to  him ;  which,  when  it  was  at  the  best, 
was  only  this,  because  he  had  the  good  fortune  to 
be  believed  by  them  that  came  after,  he  must  be 


260  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

SO  still ;  and  because  it  was  no  argument  for  the 
old  doctors  before  him,  this  will  not  be  very  good 
in  his  behalf.  The  same  I  saj  of  any  company  of 
them ;  I  say  not  so  of  all  of  them ;  it  is  to  no 
purpose  to  say  it;  for  there  is  no  question  this  day 
in  contestation,  in  the  explication  of  which  all  the 
old  writers  did  consent.  In  the  assignation  of 
the  canon  of  Scripture,  they  never  did  consent  for 
six  hundred  years  together;  and  then,  by  that 
time  the  bishops  had  agreed  indifferently  well  and 
but  indifferently,  upon  that,  they  fell  out  in  twenty 
more  ;  and  except  it  be  in  the  apostles'  creed,  and 
articles  of  such  nature,  there  is  nothing  which 
may,  with  any  color,  be  called  a  consent,  much 
less  tradition  universal. 

4.  But  I  will  rather  choose  to  show  the  un- 
certainty of  this  topic,  by  such  an  argument  which 
was  not  in  the  father's  power  to  help;  such  as 
makes  no  invasion  upon  their  great  reputation, 
which  I  desire  should  be  preserved  as  sacred  as  it 
ought.  For  other  things,  let  who  please,  read  Mr. 
Daille,  *'  On  the  true  use  of  the  Fathers ;"  but  I 
shall  only  consider,  that  the  writings  of  the  fathers 
have  been  so  corrupted  by  the  intermixture  of 
heretics,  so  many  false  books  put  forth  in  their 
names,  so  many  of  their  writings  lost  which  would 
more  clearly  have  explicated  their  sense ;  and,  at 
last,  an  open  profession  made,  and  a  trade  of 
making  the  fathers  speak,  not  what  themselves 
thought,  but  what  other  men  pleased ;  that  it  is  a 
great  instance  of  God's  providence,  and  care  of 
his  church,  that  we  have  so  much  good  preserved 
in  the  writings  which  we  receive  from  the  fathers, 
and  that  all  truth  is  not  as  clear  gone  as  is  the 
certainty  of  their  great  authority  and  reputation. 

The  publishing  books  with  the  inscription  of 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  ;26l 

reat  names,  began  in  St.  PauPs  time ;  for  some 
ad  troubled  the  church  of  Thessalonica  with  a 
false  epistle,  in  St.  PauPs  name,  against  the  incon- 
venience of  which  he  arms  them,  in  2  Thess.  ii.  1 ; 
and  this  increased  daily  in  the  church.  The 
Arians  wrote  an  epistle  to  Constantine,*  under 
the  name  of  Athanasius,  and  the  Eutychians  wrote 
against  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  under  the  name  of 
Theodoret ;  and  of  the  age  in  which  the  seventh 
synod  was  kept,  Erasmus  reports,  '•'  That  books, 
under  the  assumed  name  of  illustrious  men,  were 
everywhere  to  be  met  with."t  It  was  then  a 
public  business,  and  a  trick  not  more  base  than 
public  :  but  it  was  more  ancient  than  so,  and  it  is 
memorable  in  the  books  attributed  to  St.  Basil, 
containing  thirty  chapters ''concerning  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  whereof,  fifteen  were  plainly  added  by 
another  hand,  under  the  covert  of  St.  Basil, 
as  appears  in  the  difference  of  tlie  style,  in  the 
impertinent  digressions,  against  the  custom  of  that 
excellent  man,  by  some  passages  contradictory  to 
others  of  St.  Basil,  by  citing  Meletius  as  dead  be- 
fore him,  who  yet  lived,  three  years  after  him,:j: 
and  by  the  very  frame  and  manner  of  the  dis- 
course ;  and  yet  it  was  so  handsomely  carried,  and 
so  well  served  the  purposes  of  men,  that  it  was 
quoted  under  the  title  of  St.  Basil  by  many,  but 
without  naming  the  number  of  chapters,  and  by 
St.  John  Damascen,  in  these  words :  "  Basil,  in 
a  work  containing  thirty  chapters,  to  Amphilo- 
chius  ;"§   and  to    the  same  purpose,  and  in   the 

*  Apolog.  Athenas.  ad.  Constant. 

t  "Libris  falso  celebrium  virorum  titulo  commendatis 
scatere  omnia." — Vid.  Baron,  a.  d.  553. 

X  Vid.  Baron,  in  Annal. 

§  "  Basilius  in  opere  triginta  capitum  de  Spiritu  S.  ad  Ara- 
philochium." — Lib.  i.  de  fmagin.  Orat.  1. 


262  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

number  of  twenty-seven  and  twenty-nine  chapters, 
he  is  cited  by  Photius,*  by  Euthymius,  by 
Burchard,  by  Zonaras,  Balsamon,  and  Nicepho- 
riis;  but  for  this,  see  more  in  Erasmus's  preface 
upon  this  book  of  St.  Basil.  There  is  an  epistle 
goes  still  under  the  name  of  St.  Jerome,  to  the 
virgin  Demetrias,  and  is  of  great  use  in  the  ques- 
tion of  predestination,  with  its  appendices,  and 
yet  a  very  learned  mant,  eight  hundred  years  ago, 
did  believe  it  to  be  written  by  a  Pelagian,  and 
undertakes  to  confute  divers  parts  of  it,  as  being 
high  and  confident  Pelagianism,  and  written  by 
Julianus  Episc.  Eclanensis;!  but  Gregorius  Arimi- 
nensis,  from  St.  Austin,  affirms  it  to  have  been 
written  by  Pelagius  himself.  I  might  instance  in 
too  many.  There  is  not  any  one  of  the  fathers 
who  is  esteemed  author  of  any  considerable 
number  of  books,  th.at  hath  escaped  untouched : 
but  the  abuse  in  this  kind  hath  been  so  evident, 
that  now,  if  any  interested  person,  of  any  side,  be 
pressed  with  an  authority  very  pregnant  against 
him,  he  thinks  to  escape  by  accusing  the  edition, 
or  the  author,  or  the  hands  it  passed  through,  or, 
at  last,  he  therefore  suspects  it,  because  it  makes 
against  him :  both  sides  being  resolved  that  they 
are  in  the  right,  the  authorities  that  they  admit 
they  will  believe  not  to  be  against  them  ;  and  they 
wliich  are  too  plainly  against  them  shall  be  no  au- 
thorities :  and,  indeed,  the  whole  world  hath  been  so 
much  abused,  that  every  man  thinks  he  hath  reason 
to  suspect  whatsoever  is  against  him,  that  is,  v/hathe 
please;  which  proceeding  only  produces  this  truth, 
tliat  there  neither  is,  nor  can  be  any  certainty,  nor 
very  much  probability,  in  such  allegations. 

*  Nomocan.  tit.  i.  cap.  3. 

t  V.  Beda  de  Gratia  Christi.  ad  v.  Julianum. 

I  Gres;.  Arim.  in  ii.  sent.  dist.  xxvi.  q,  1.  a.  3. 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  263 

But  there  is  a  worse  mischief  than  this,  besides 
those  very  many  which  are  not  yet  discovered, 
which  like  the  pestilence  destroys  in  the  dark,  and 
•yrows  into  inconvenience  more  insensibly  and 
more  irremediably ;  and  that  is,  corruption  of 
particular  places,  by  inserting  words  and  altering 
them  to  contrary  senses  ;  a  thing  which  the  fathers 
of  the  sixth  general  synod  complained  of  con- 
cerning the  constitutions  of  St.  Clement,  "in 
which  certain  corruptions  of  the  true  faith  are 
introduced  by  persons  heretically  inclined,  which 
have  obscured  the  beauty  of  the  divine  decrees  ;*'  *' 
and  so  also  have  his  recognitions,  so  have  his 
epistles  been  used,  if,  at  least,  they  were  his  at 
all ;  particularly  the  fifth  decretal  epistle,  that 
soes  under  the  name  of  St.  Clement,  in  which 
community  of  wives  is  taught  upon  the  authority 
of  St.  Luke,  saying,  the  first  ChrivStians  had  all 
things  common  ;  if  all  things,  then  wives  also,  says 
the  epistle:  a  forgery  like  to  have  been  done  by 
some  Nicolaitan,  or  other  impure  person.  Tliere 
is  an  epistle  of  Cyril  extant,  to  Successus,  bishop 
of  Diocsesarea,  in  wliich  he  relates,  that  he  vvas 
asked  by  Budus,  bishop  of  Emessa,  wliether  he 
did  approve  of  the  epistle  of  Athanasius  to 
Epictetus,  bishop  of  Corinth,  and  that  his  answer 
was  :  "If  the  copies  you  have  are  not  corrupted, 
for  many  are  found  to  be  so  by  the  enemies  of  the 
church."t  And  this  was  done  even  while  the 
authors  themselves  were  alive ;  for  so  Dionysius 

*  "  Quibus  jam  oliin,  ab  iis  qui  a  fide  aliena  aentiunt,  adul- 
terina  qusedam  etiam  pietate  aliena  introducta  sunt,  qus 
divinoruin  nobis  decretorum  clegantexn  et  venustam  speciem 
obscuraruiit." — Can.  ii. 

t  "Si  haec  apud  vos  scripta  non  sint  adultera;  nam  plura 
ex  his  ab  hostibus  Ecclesiffi  deprehenduntur  esse  depravata." 
— Euseb.  lib.  iv.  c.  23. 


j264  the  sacred  classics. 

of  Corinth  complained  that  his  writings  were  cor- 
rupted by  heretics,  and  Pope  Leo,  that  his  epistle 
to  Flavianus  was  perverted  by  the  Greeks :  and  in 
the  synod  of  Constantinople,*  before  quoted,  (the 
sixth  synod,)  Macarius,  and  his  disciples,  were 
convicted  "  of  garbling,  or  corrupting  the  writings 
of  the  saints."!  Thus  the  tliird  chapter  of  St. 
Cyprian's  book,  "  On  the  Unity  of  the  church," 
in  the  edition  of  Pamelius,  suftered  great  altera- 
tion. These  words,  primatus  Petro  daficr,  "the 
primacy  is  given  to  St.  Peter,"  wholly  inserted  ; 
and  these,  siipei-  cathcdram  Petri  fundatar  eat 
ecdesia,  '''the  church  is  founded  upon  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter :"  and  whereas  it  was  before,  super  unum 
sedificat  ecclesiam  Christus,  "Christ  builds  his 
church  upon  one  ;"  that  not  being  enough,  they 
have  made  it  super  ilium  unum,  "  upon  that  one." 
Now,  these  editions  are  against  the  faith  of  all  old 
copies  before  Minutius  and  Pamelius,  and  L;!,i;ainst 
Gratian,  even  after  himself  had  been  chastised  by 
the  Roman  correctors,  the  commissaries  of  Gre- 
gory XIII ;  as  is  to  be  seen  where  these  words 
are  alleged,  Decret.  c.  24,  q.  1.  can.  Loquitur 
Dominus  ad  Petrum.  So  that  we  may  say  of 
Cyprian's  works,  as  Pamelius  himself  said  con- 
cerning his  writings,  and  the  writings  of  other  of 
the  fathers;  saith  he:  "  Whence  we  gather,  that 
the  writings  of  Cyprian,  and  others  of  the  fathers, 
are  in  various  ways  corrupted  by  the  transcribers.":!: 
But  Gratian  himself  could  do  as  fine  a  feat  when 
he  listed,  or  else  somebody  did  it  for  him  ;  and  it 

*  Act.  viii.  vid.  etiam  Synod,  vii.  act.  4. 

t  "  Quod  sanctorum  testimonia  aut  truncarint  autdeprava- 
rint." 

\  "  Cypriani  scripta  ut  et  aliorum  Veterum  a  librariis  varie 
fuisse  interpolata."— Annot.  Ciprian.  super.  Concil.  Car- 
thag.  n.  1. 


THE    LIBERT V  OF  PROPHESYING.  ^65 

was  ill  this  very  question,  their  beloved  article  of 
the  pope's  supremacy;  for  he  quotes  these  words 
out  of  St.  Ambrose :  "  They  do  not  hold  the 
inheritance  of  Peter,  who  do  not  possess  the  seat 
of  Peter  :"*\/z(fcm,  "faith,"  not  sedem, ''  seat,"  it 
is  in  St.  Ambrose;  but  this  error  was  made 
authentic  by  being  inserted  into  the  code  of  the 
law  of  the  catholic  church  ;  and  considering  iiovv 
little  notice  the  clergy  had  of  antiquity,  but  what 
was  transmitted  to  them  by  Gratian,  it  will  be  no 
great  wonder  that  all  this  part  of  the  world  swal- 
lowed such  a  bole,  and  the  opinion  that  was 
wrapped  in  it.  But  I  need  not  instance  in  Gratian 
any  further,  but  refer  any  one  that  desires  to  be 
satisfied  concerning  this  collection  of  his,  to  Au- 
gustinus,  arc'ibishop  of  Tarracon,  in  EmendaCwne 
Graliani,  where  he  shall  find  fopperies  and  cor- 
ruptions, good  store,  noted  by  that  learned  man : 
but  that  the  Indices  Expurgatorii,  commanded  by 
authority ,t  and  practised  with  public  licence, 
profess  to  alter  and  correct  the  sayings  of  tlie 
fathers,  and  to  reconcile  them  to  the  catholic  sense, 
by  putting  in  and  leaving  out,  is  so  great  an  ini- 
posture,  so  unchristian  a  proceeding,  that  it  hath 
made  the  faith  of  all  books  and  all  authors  justly 
to  be  suspected.  For  co?isidenng  their  intluiin 
diligence  and  great  opportunity,  as  having  had 
most  of  the  copies  in  their  own  hands,  together 
with  an  unsatisfiahle  desire  of  prevailing  in  their 
right,  or  in  their  wrong,  they  have  made  an  ab- 
solute destruction  of  this  topic;  and  when  the 

*  "  Non  habent  Petri  hsereditatem,  qui  non  babent  Petri 
sedem. 

t  Vid.  Iiid.  Expurg.  Belg.  in  Bertram,  et  Fland.  Hispan. 
Portugal.  Neopolitan.  Romannm.  Junium  in  prefat.  ad  Ind. 
Expurg.  Belg.  Hasenmusserum,  p.  275.  Withlington,  Apo- 
log.  num.  -143. 
23 


266  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

fathers  speak  Latin,*  or  breathe  in  a  Roman  diocess, 
although  the  providence  of  God  does  infinitely 
overrule  them,  and  that  it  is  next  to  a  miracle, 
that  in  the  monuments  of  antiquity  there  is  no 
more  found  that  can  pretend  for  their  advantage 
than  there  is,  which,  indeed,  is  infinitely  incon- 
siderable; yet,  our  questions  and  uncertainties  are 
infinitely  multiplied,  instead  of  a  probable  and 
reasonable  determination.  For  since  the  liatins 
always  complained  of  the  Greeks,  for  privately 
corrupting  the  ancient  records,  both  of  councils 
and  fathers,!  and  now  the  Latins  make  open  pro- 
fession, not  of  corrupting,  but  of  correcting  their 
writings  (that  is  the  word),  and  at  the  most  it  was 
but  a  human  authority,  and  that  of  persons  not 
always  learned,  and  very  often  deceived;  the 
whole  mater  is  so  unreasonable,  that  it  is  not 
worth  a  further  disquisition.  But  if  any  one  de- 
sires to  inquire  further,  he  may  be  satisfied  in 
Erasmus;  in  Henry  and  Robert  Stephens,  in  the 
prefaces  before  the  editions  of  Fathers,  and  their 
observa,tion  upon  them;  in  Bellarmine,  de  Script. 
Ecdes.;  in  Dr.  Reynolds,  de  Libris  Jipocryphis  ;  in 
Scaliger;  andRobert  Coke  of  Leeds,  in  Yorkshire, 
in  his  book  de  Censura  Patriim. 

'  Videat  Lector  Andream  Cristovium,  in  BpIIo  Jesuitico, 
et  Joh.  Reynolds,  in  )ib.  de  Idol.  Rom. 
I  Vid.  Ep.  Nicolai  ad  Michael.  Imperat. 


THE    J  IBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  9.^7 


SECTION    IX. 

( f  thi  mcompefency  of  the  Church  in  its  diffusive 
capacity  to  be  judge  of  controversies,  and  the  im- 
pertinency  of  tlmt  pretence  of  the  Spirit. 

And  now, after  all  these  considerations  of  the  se- 
veral topics,  tradition,  councils,  popes,  and  ancient 
doctors  of  the  church,  I  suppose  it  will  not  be  ne- 
cessary to  consider  the  authority  of  the  church 
apart;  for  the  church  either  speaks  by  tradition, 
or  by  a  representative  body  in  a  council,  by  popes, 
or  by  the  fatliers  :  for  the  church  is  not  a  chimera, 
not  a  shadow,  but  a  company  of  men  believing  in 
Jesus  Christ,  which  men  either  speak  by  themselves 
immediately,  or  by  their  rulers,  or  by  their  proxies 
and  representatives.  Now,  I  have  considered  it  in 
all  senses  but  in  its  diffusive  capacity ;  in  whicli 
capacity  she  cannot  be  supposed  to  be  a  judge  of 
controversies,  both  because  in  that  capacity  she 
cannot  teach  us,  as  also  because  if  by  a  judge  v/e 
mean  all  the  church  diftused  in  all  its  parts  and 
members,  so  there  can  be  no  controversy ;  for  if 
all  men  be  of  that  opinion,  then  there  is  no  question 
contested  :  if  they  be  not  all  of  a  mind,  how  can 
the  whole  diffusive  catholic  church  be  pretended 
in  defiance  of  any  one  article,  where  tiie  diffusive 
church  being  divided,  part  goes  this  way  and  part 
another  ?  But  if  it  be  said,  the  greatest  part  must 
carry  it ;  besides  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
know  wliich  way  the  greatest  part  goes,  in  many 
questions,  it  is  not  always  true  that  the  greater 


268  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

part  is  the  best  ;  sometimes  the  contrarj  is  most 
certain,  and  it  is  often  very  probable,  but  it  is 
always  possible.  And  wiien  paucity  of  followers 
was  objected  to  Liberius,  he  gave  this  in  answer : 
*'  There  was  a  time  when  but  three  children  of 
the  captivity  resisted  the  king's  decree."*  And 
Athanasiust  wrote  on  purpose  against  those  that 
did  judge  of  truth  by  multitudes ;  and  indeed  it 
concerned  him  so  to  do,  when  he  alone  stood 
in  the  gap  against  the  numerous  armies  of  the 
Arians. 

But  if  there  could,  in  this  case,  be  any  distinct 
consideration  of  the  church,  jat  to  know  Vv^hich  is 
the  true  church  is  so  liard  to  be  found  out,  that 
the  greatest  question  of  Christendom  are  judged 
before  you  can  get  to  your  judge,  and  then  there 
is  no  need  of  him.  For  those  questions  which 
are  concerning  the  judge  of  questions,  must  be 
determined  before  you  can  submit  to  his  judgment; 
and  if  you  can  yourselves  determine  those  great 
questions,  which  consist  much  in  universalities, 
then  also  you  may  determine  the  particulars,  as 
being  of  less  difficulty.  And  he  that  considers  how 
many  notes  there  are  given  to  know  the  true 
church  (no  less  than  fifteen  by  Eellarmine)  and 
concerning  every  one  of  them,  almost,  whether  it 
be  a  certain  note  or  no,  there  are  very  many 
questions  and  uncertainties ;  and  v^'lien  it  is  re- 
solved which  are  the  notes,  there  is  more  dispute 
about  the  application  of  these  notes  than  of  the 
UparoKptvoiuivov  (original  question),  will  quickly  be 
satisfied  that  he  had  better  sit  still  than  to  go  round 
about  a  difiicult  and  troublesome  passage,  and  at 
last  get  no  further,  but  return  to  the  place  from 
whence  he  first  set  out.     And  there  is  one  note 

*  Theod.  lib.ii.  c.  16,Hist.  t  Torn.  ii. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  269 

amongst  the  rest, — holiness  of  doctrine  ;~ that  is 
so  as  to  have  nothing  false  either  in  faith  or  morals, 
(for  so  Bellarmine  explicates  it),  which  supposes 
all  your  controversies  judged  before  they  can  be 
tried  by  the  authority  of  the  church ;  and  when 
we  have  found  out  all  true  doctrine,  (for  that  is 
necessary  to  judge  of  the  church  by  that  as  St. 
Austin's  council  is,  "  We  should  look  for  the 
church  in  the  words  of  Christ)  ;"*  then  we  are 
bound  to  follow  because  we  judge  it  true,  not 
because  the  church  hath  said  it : — and  this  is  to 
judge  of  the  church  by  her  doctrine  ;  not  of  the 
doctrine  by  the  church.  And,  indeed,  it  is  the 
best  and  only  way;  but  then  how  to  judge  of  that 
doctrine  will  be  afterwards  inquired  into.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  church,  that  is,  the  governors  of 
the  churches,  are  to  judge  for  themselves^  and 
for  all  those  who  cannot  judge  for  themselves. 
For  others,  they  must  know  that  their  governors 
judge  for  them  too,  so  as  to  keep  tliem  iu  peace 
and  obedience,  though  not  for  the  determination 
of  their  private  persuasions  ;  for  the  economy  of 
the  church  requires  that  her  authority  be  received 
by  all  her  children.  Now  this  authority  is  divine  in 
\ts  original,  for  it  derives  immediately  from  Christ, 
but  it  is  human  in  its  ministration.  We  are  to  be 
led  like  men,  not  like  beasts :  a  rule  is  prescribed 
for  the  guides  themselves  to  follow,  as  we  are  to 
follow  the  guides ;  and  although,  in  matters  inde- 
terminable or  ambiguous,  the  presumption  lies  on 
behalf  of  the  governors  (for  we  do  nothing  for 
authority,  if  we  suffer  it  not  to  weigh  that  part 
down  of  an  indifferency  and  a  question  which  she 
chooses) :  yet  if  there  be  a  manifest  error,  as  it 
often  happens,  or  if  the  church  governors  them- 

*  ""Keeiesiam  in  verbis  Christi  investigemns." 
23* 


SZ'O  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

selves  be  rent  into  innumerable  sects,  as  it  is  this 
day  in  Christendom,  then  we  are  to  be  as  wise  as 
we  can  in  choosing  our  guides,  and  then  to  fol- 
low so  long  as  that  reason  remains  for  which  we 
first  chose  them.  And  even  in  that  government 
which  was  an  immediate  sanction  of  God,  I  mean 
the  ecclesiastical  government  of  the  synagogue, 
where  God  had  consigned  the  high  priest's  au- 
thority, with  a  menace  of  death  to  them  tliat 
should  disobey,  that  all  the  world  might  knowrthe 
meaning  and  extent  of  such  precepts,  and  that 
there  is  a  limit  bejr^nd  which  they  cannot  com- 
mand, and  we  ought  not  to  obey ;  it  came  once  to 
pass,  that  if  the  priest  had  been  obeyed  in  his 
conciliary  degrees,  the  whole  nation  had  been 
bound  to  believe  the  condemnation  of  our  blessed 
Savior  to  have  been  just ;  and,  at  anotlier  time, 
the  apostles  must  iio  more  have  preached  in  the 
name  of  Jesus.  But  here  was  manifest  error : 
and  the  case  is  tlie  same  to  every  man  that  in- 
vincibly, and  therefore  innocently,  believes  it  so. 
'  Obey  God  rather  than  man,'  is  our  rule  in  such 
cases.  For  although  every  man  is  bound  to  follow 
his  guide,  unless  he  believes  his  guide  to  mislead 
him,  yet  when  he  sees  reason  against  his  guide  it 
is  best  to  follow  his  reason ;  for  though  in  this  he 
may  fall  into  error,  yet  he  will  escape  the  sin — he 
may  do  violence  to  truth,  but  never  to  his  own 
conscience ;  and  an  honest  error  is  better  than  an 
hypocritical  profession  of  truth,  or  a  violent  luxa- 
tion of  the  understanding;  since,  if  he  retains 
his  honesty  and  simplicity,  he  cannot  err  in  a 
matter  of  faith  or  absolute  necessity.  God's 
goodness  hath  secured  all  honest  and  careful 
persons  from  that — for  other  things  he  must  fol- 
low the  best  guides  he  can,  and  he  cannot  be 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  271 

obliged  to  follow  better  than  God  hath  given 
him. 

And  there  is  yet  another  way  pretended,  of 
intallible  expositions  of  Scripture,  and  that  is,  by 
the  Spirit:  but  of  this  I  shall  say  no  more,  but 
that  it  is  impertinent  to  this  question.  For  put 
case,  the  Spirit  is  given  to  some  men,  enabling 
them  to  expound  infallibly;  yet  because  this  is 
but  a  private  assistance,  and  cannot  be  proved  to 
others,  this  infallible  assistance  may  determine  my 
own  assent,  but  shall  not  enable  me  to  prescribe 
to  others;  because  it  were  unreasonable  I  should, 
unless  I  could  prove  to  him  that  I  have  the  Spirit, 
and  so  can  secure  him  from  being  deceived,  if  he 
relies  upon  me.  In  this  case  I  may  say,  as  St. 
Paul,  in  the  case  of  praying  with  the  Spirit;  '  He 
verily  giveth  thanks  well :  but  the  other  is  not 
edified.'  So  that,  let  this  pretence  be  as  true  as 
it  will,  it  is  sufficient  that  it  cannot  be  of  consi- 
deration in  this  question. 

The  result  of  all  this — since  it  is  not  reasonable 
to  limit  and  to  prescribe  to  all  men's  understand- 
ings, by  any  external  rule  in  the  interpretation  of 
difficult  places  of  Scripture,  which  is  our  rule ; 
since  no  man,  nor  company  of  men,  is  secure  from 
error,  or  can  secure  us  that  they  are  free  from 
malice,  interest,  and  design ;  and  since  all  the 
ways  by  which  we  usually  are  taught,  as  tradition, 
councils,  decretals,  &c.  are  very  uncertain  in  the 
matter,  in  their  authority,  in  their  being  legita- 
mate  and  natural,  and  many  of  them  certainly 
false,  and  nothing  certain  but  the  divine  authority 
of  Scripture,  in  which  all  that  is  necessary  is 
plain,  and  much  of  that  that  is  not  necessary,  is 
ve^-y  obscure,  intricate,  and  involved;  either  we 
must  set  up  our  rest  only  upon»,flrticles  t»f  fftith 


272  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

and  plain  places,  and  be  incurious  of  other  ob- 
scurer revelations  (which  is  a  duty  for  persons 
of  private  understandings,  and  of  no  public  func- 
tion) ;  or,  if  we  will  search  further  (to  which,  in 
some  measure  the  guides  of  others  are  obliged),  it 
remains,  we  inquire  how  men  may  determine 
themselves,  so  as  to  do  their  duty  to  God  and  not 
to  disserve  the  church,  that  every  such  man  may 
do  what  he  is  bound  to,  in  his  personal  capa- 
city, and  as  he  relates  to  the  public  as  a  public 
minister. 


SECTION    X. 


Of  the  Autliorily  of  Reasmi,  and  that  it  proceeding 
upon  best  grounds  is  the  best  judge. 

Here  then  I  consider,  that  although  no  man 
may  be  trusted  to  judge  for  all  others,  unless  this 
person  were  infallible  and  authorized  so  to  do, 
which  no  man  nor  no  company  of  men  is,  yet  every 
man  may  be  trusted  to  judge  for  himself;  I  say 
every  man  that  can  judge  at  all  (as  for  others, 
they  are  to  be  saved  as  it  pleaseth  God) ;  but 
others  that  can  judge  at  all  must  either  choose 
their  guides,  who  shall  judge  for  them  (and  then 
they  oftentimes  do  tlie  wisest,  and  always  save 
themselves  a  labor,  but  then  they  choose  too) ;  or 
if  they  be  persons  of  greater  understanding,  then 
thiiy  are  to  choose  for  themselves  in  particular 
-what  the  others  do  iu  gejs^eral;  and  by  choosing 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  273 

their  guide  ;  and  for  tliis  any  man  may  be  better 
trusted  for  himself  than  any  man  can  be  for 
another  ;  for,  in  this  case,  his  own  interest  is  most 
concerned ;  and  ability  is  not  so  necessary  as 
honesty,  which  certainly  every  man  will  best  pre- 
serve in  his  own  case,  and  to  himself  (and,  if  he 
does  not,  it  is  he  that  must  smart  for  it) ;  and  it  is 
not  required  of  us  not  to  be  in  error,  but  that  we 
endeavor  to  avoid  it. 

2.  He  that  follov/s  his  guide  so  far  as  his  reason 
goes  along  with  him ;  or  which  is  all  one,  he  that 
follows  his  own  reason  (not  guided  only  by  natural 
arguments,  but  by  divine  revelation,  and  all  other 
good  means),  hath  great  advantages  over  him  that 
gives  himself  wholly  to  follow  any  human  guide, 
whatsoever ;  because  he  follows  all  their  reason  and 
his  own  too :  he  follows  them  till  reason  leaves 
them,  or  till  it  seems  so  to  him,  which  is  ail  one  to 
his  particular ;  for,  by  the  confession  of  all  sides,  an 
erroneous  conscience  binds  him,  when  a  right  guide 
does  not  bind  him.  But  he  that  gives  himself  up 
wholly  to  a  guide,  is  oftentimes  (I  mean,  if  he  be  a 
discerning  person)  forced  to  do  violence  to  his  own 
understanding,  and  to  lose  ail  the  benefit  of  his 
own  discretion,  that  he  may  reconcile  his  reason 
to  his  guide.  And  of  this  we  see  infinite  incon- 
veniences in  the  church  of  Home;  for  we  find 
persons  of  great  understanding  oftentimes  so 
amused  with  the  authority  of  their  church,  that  it 
is  pity  to  see  them  sweat  in  answering  some  objec- 
tions, which  they  know  not  how  to  do,  but  jet 
believe  they  must,  because  the  .church  hath  said  it. 
So  that  if  they  read,  study,  pray,  search  recoi-ds, 
and  use  all  the  means  of  art  and  industry  in  the 
pursuit  of  truth,  it  is  not  with  resolution  to  follow- 
that  which  shall  seem  truth  to  them,  but  to  confirm 


274  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

what  before  thej  did  believe  ;  and  if  any  argument 
shall   seem  unanswerable  against  any  article  of 
their  church,  they  are  to  take  it  for  a  temptation,  not 
for  an  illumination,  and  they  are  to  use  it  accord- 
ingly ;  which  makes  them  make  the  devil  to  be  the 
author  of  that  which  God's  Spirit  hath  assisted  them 
to  find,  ill  the  use  of  lawful  means, and  the  search 
of  truth;  and  when  the  devil  of  falsehood  is  like  to  be 
cast  out  by  God's  Spirit,  they  say  that  it  is  through 
Belzebub,  which  was  one  of  the  worst  things  that 
ever  tlie  Pharisees  said  or  did.  And  was  it  not  a  plain 
stifling  of  the  just  and  reasonable  demands  made 
by  the  emperor,  by  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain, 
and  by  the  ablest  divines  among  them,  which  was 
«sed  in  the  council  of  Trent,  when  they  demanded 
the  restitution  of  priests  to  their  liberty  of  marriage, 
the  use  of  the  chalice,  the  service  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  ;  and  these  things  not  only  in  pursuance  of 
truth,  but  for  other  great  and  good  ends^  even  to 
take  away  an  infinite  scandal,  and  a  great  schism  ? 
And  yet,  when  they  themselves  did  profess  it,  all 
the  world  knew  these  reasonable  demands  were 
denied  merely  upon  a  politic  consideration  ;  yet 
that  these  things  should  be  framed  into  articles 
and  decrees  of  faith,  and  they  for  ever  after  bound 
not  only  not  to  desire  the  same  things,  but  to  think 
the  contrary  to  be  divine  truths,  never  was  reason 
made  more  a  slave,  or  more  useless.     Must  not  all 
the  world  say,  either  they  must  be  great  hypocrites, 
or  do  great  violence  to  their  understanding,  when 
they  not  only  cease  from  their  claim,  but  must  also 
believe  it  to  be  unjust?     If  the  use  of  their  reason 
had  not  been  restrained  by  the  tyranny  and  impe- 
riousness  of  their  guide,  what  the  emperor,  and  the 
kings,  and  their  theologues  would  have  done,  they 
can  best  judge  who  consider  the  reasonableness  of 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    rROPHESYING.  -75 

the  demand,  and  the  unreasonableness  of  the 
denial.  But  we  see  many  wise  men,  who,  with 
their  optandinn  esset  ut  eccksia  liceniiam  daret^^ 
<*^/:.,  proclaim  to  all  the  worlds  that  in  some  things 
they  consent,  and  do  not  heartily  believe  what  they 
are  bound  publicly  to  profess ;  and  they  themselves 
would  clearly  see  a  difference,  if  a  contrary  decree 
should  be  framed  by  the  church  ;  they  would,  with 
an  infinite  greater  confidence,  rest  themselves  in 
other  propositions  than  what  they  mu&t  believe  as 
the  case  now  stands  ;  and  they  would  find  that  the 
authority  of  a  church  is  a  prejudice  as  often  as  a 
free  and  modest  use  of  reason  is  a  temptation, 

3.  God  will  have  no  man  pressed  with  another's 
inconveniences  in  matters  spiritual  and  intellectual 
— no  man's  salvation  to  depend  upon  another; 
and  every  tooth  that  eats  sour  grapes  shall  be  set 
on  edge  for  itself,  and  for  none  else;  and  this  is 
remarkable  in  that  saying  of  God  by  the  prophet: 
'If  the  propliet  ceases  to  tell  my  people  of  their 
sins,  and  leads  them  into  error,  the  people  shall 
die  in  their  sins,  and  the  blood  of  them  I  will  re- 
quire at  the  hands  of  that  prophet. 't  Meaning, 
that  God  hath  so  set  the  prophets  to  guide  us  ;  that 
we  also  are  to  follow  them  by  a  voluntary  assent, 
by  an  act  of  choice  and  election.  For,  although 
accidentally  and  occasionally  the  sheep  may  perish 
by  the  shepherd's  fault,  yet  that  which  hath  the 
chiefest  influence  upon  their  final  condition,  is 
their  own  act  and  election ;  and  therefore  God 
hath  so  appointed  guides  to  us,  that  if  we  perish 
it  may  be  accounted  upon  both  our  scores,  upon 
our  own  and  the  guides'  too ;  which  says  plainly, 
that  although  Me  are  intrusted  to  our  guides,  yet 

*  "  It  were  to  be  wished,  that  the  church  allowed,  &c." 
t  Ezek.  xxxiii. 


276  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

we  are  intrusted  to  ourselves  too.  Our  guides 
must  direct  us;  and  vet,  if  they  fail,  God  hath  not 
so  left  us  to  them,  but  he  hath  given' us  enough"  to 
ourselves  to  discover  their  failings,  and  our  own 
duties  in  all  things  necessary ;  and  for  other  things 
we  must  do  as  well  as  we  can.  But  it  is  best  to 
follow  our  guides,  if  we  know  nothing  better  ;  but 
if  we  do,  it  is  better  to  follow  the  pillar  of  fire,  than 
'  a  pillar  of  cloud,  though  both  possibly  may  lead  to 
Canaan  :  but  then,  also,  it  is  possible  that  it  may  be 
otherwise.  But  I  am  sure,  if  I  do  my  own  best ; 
then,  if  it  be  best  to  follow  a  guide,  and  if  it  be 
also  necessary,  I  shall  be  sure,  by  God's  grace  and 
my  own  endeavor,  to  get  to  it ;  but  if  I,  without 
the  particular  enc^agement  of  my  understanding 
follow  a  guide,  possibly  I  may  be  guilty  of  extreme 
negligence,  or  I  may  extinguish  God's  Spirit,  or  do 
violence  to  my  own  reason.  And  whether  intrust- 
ing myself  wholly  with  another  be  not  a  laying  up 
my  talent  in  a  napkin,  I  am  not  so  well  assured  :  I 
am  certain  the  other  is  not.  And  since  another 
man's  answering  for  me  v/ill  not  hinder,  but  that  I 
also  shall  answer  for  myself ;  as  it  concerns  him  to 
see  he  does  not  willfully  misguide  me^  so  it  concerns 
jne  to  see  that  he  shall  not,  if  I  can  help  it;  if  I  can- 
not, it  will  not  be  required  at  my  hands  :  whether 
it  be  his  fault  or  his  invincible  error,  I  shall  be 
charged  with  neither. 

4.  This  is  no  other  than  what  is  enjoined  as  a 
duty.  For  since  God  will  be  justified  with  a  free 
obedience — and  there  is  an  obedience  of  under- 
standing as  well  as  of  will  and  aftbction — it  is  of 
great  concernment,  as  to  be  willing  to  believe 
whatever  God  says,  so  also  to  inquire  diligently 
whether  the  will  of  God  be  so  as  it  is  pretended. 
Even  our  acts  of  understanding;  are  acts  of  choice ; 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  277 

and  thei'efore  it  is  commanded,  as  a  duty,  to 
'  search  the  Scriptures,  to  try  the  spirits,  whether 
the  J  be  of  God  or  no,  of  ourselves  to  be  able  to 
judge  what  is  right,  to  prove  all  things,  and  to 
retain  that  which  is  best.'*  For  he  that  resolves 
not  to  consider,  resolves  not  to  be  careful  whether 
he  have  truth  or  no,  and  therefore  hath  an  affection 
indifferent  to  truth  or  falsehood,  which  is  all  one  as 
if  he  did  choose  amiss;  and  since,  when  things 
are  truly  propounded  and  made  reasonable  and 
intelligible,  we  cannot  but  assent,  and  then  it  is 
no  thanks  to  us ;  we  have  no  way  to  give  our  wills 
to  God  in  matters  of  belief,  but  by  our  industry  in 
searching  it,  and  examining  the  grounds  upon 
which  the  propounders  build  their  dictates.  And 
the  not  doing  it,  is  oftentimes  a  cause  that  God 
gives  a  man  over  g;c  vow  a-^oMfxrA',  into  a  reprobate 
and  undiscerning  mind  and  understanding. 

5.  And  this  very  thing  (though  men  will  not 
understand  it)  is  the  perpetual  practice  of  all  men 
in  the  world,  that  can  give  a  reasonable  account 
of  their  faith.  The  very  Catholic  church  itself 
is  rationabilis  et  ubiq.  diffusa,  saitli  Optatus,  'rea- 
sonable, as  well  as  diffused  every  where.'  For, 
take  the  proselytes  of  the  church  of  Rome — even 
in  their  greatest  submission  of  understanding,  they 
seem  to  themselves  to  follow  their  reason  most  of 
all:  for  if  you  tell  them,  Scripture  and  tradition 
are  their  rules  to  follow,  they  will  believe  you 
when  they  know  a  reason  for  it ;  and  if  they  take 
you  upon  your  word,  they  have  a  reason  for  that 
too  ;  either  they  believe  you  a  learned  man,  or  a 
good  man,  or  that  you  can  have  no  ends  upon 
them,  or  something  that  is  of  an  equal  height  to 

*  Matt.  XV.  10 ;  John,  v.  40;  1  John,  iv.  1 ;  Ephes.  v.  17, 
Luke,  xxiv.  25 ;  Rom.  iii.  1 1,  i.  28 ;  Apoc.  ii.  2 ;  Acts.  xvii.  11. 
24 


278  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

fit  their  understandings.  If  jou  tell  them  tHey 
must  believe  the  church,  you  must  teil  them  why 
they  are  bound  to  it;  and  if  you  quote  Scripture 
to  prove  it,  you  must  give  them  leave  to  judge 
whether  the  words  alleged  speak  your  sense  or  no, 
and  therefore  to  dissent  if  they  say  no  such  thing; 
and  although  ail  men  are  not  wise,  and  proceed 
discreetly,  yet  all  make  their  choice  some  way  or 
other.  He  that  chooses  to  please  his  fancy,  takes 
his  choice  as  much  as  he  that  chooses  prudently. 
And  no  man  speaks  more  unreasonably  than  he 
that  denies  to  men  the  use  of  their  reason  in 
choice  of  their  religion  :  for  that  I  may,  by  the 
way,  remove  the  common  prejudice,  reason  and 
authority  are  not  things  incompetent  or  repugnant, 
especially  when  the  authority  is  infallible  and  su- 
preme; for  there  is  no  greater  reason  in  the  wo'ld 
than  to  believe  such  an  authority.  But  then  we 
must  consider,  whether  every  authority  tliat  pre- 
tends to  be  such,  is  so  indeed  :  and  therefore,  iJcirs 
dixit,  ergo  hoc  verimi  est,  '•  God  hath  said  it,  there- 
fore it  is  true,"  is  the  greatest  demonstration  in  the 
world  for  things  of  this  nature.  But  it  is  not  so 
in  human  dictates;  and  yet  reason  and  human 
authority  are  not  enemies:  for  it  is  a  good  argu- 
ment for  us  to  follow  such  an  opinion,  because  it 
is  made  sacred  by  the  authority  of  councils  and 
ecclesiastical  tradition,  and  sometimes  it  is  the 
best  reason  we  have  in  a  question,  and  then  it  is 
to  be  strictly  followed  ;  but  there  may  also  be,  at 
other  times,  a  reason  greater  than  it  that  speaks 
against  it,  and  then  the  authority  must  not  carry 
it.  But  then  the  difference  is  not  between  reason 
and  authority,  but  between  this  reason  and  that, 
which  is  greater;  for  authority  is  a  very  good 
reason,  and  is  to  prevail,  unless  a  stronger  comes 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIXG.  279 

and  disarms  it,  but  then  it  must  give  place.  So  that 
in  this  question,  by  reason,  I  do  not  mean  a  distinct 
topic,  but  a  transcendent  that  runs  throuo;h  all 
topics  ;  for  reason,  like  logic,  is  instrument  of  all 
things  else:  and  when  revelation,  and  philosophy, 
and  public  experience,  and  all  other  grounds  of 
probability  or  demonstration,  have  supplied  us  with 
matter,  then  reason  does  but  make  use  of  them  : 
that  is,  in  plain  terms,  there  being  so  many  ways 
of  arguing  so  many  sects,  such  differing  interests, 
such  variety  of  authority,  so  many  pretences,  and 
so  many  false  beliefs,  it  concerns  every  wise  man 
to  consider  which  is  the  best  argument,  which 
proposition  relies  upon  the  truest  grounds:  and  if 
this  were  not  his  only  way,  why  do  men  dispute 
and  urge  arguments,  why  do  they  cite  councils 
and  fathers,  why  do  they  allege  Scripture  and  tra- 
dition, and  all  this  on  all  sides,  and  to  contrary 
purposes  ?  If  we  must  judge,  then  we  must  use 
our  reason  ;  if  we  must  not  judge,  why  do  they 
produce  evidence  ?  Let  them  leave  disputing,  and 
decree  propositions  magisterially :  but  then  we 
may  choose  whether  we  will  believe  them  or  no ; 
or,  if  they  say  we  must  believe  them,  they  must 
prove  it,  and  tell  us  why.  And  all  these  disputes 
concerning  tradition,  councils,  fathers,  &c.,  are 
not  arguments  against  or  besides  reason,  but  con- 
testations and  pretences  to  the  best  arguments, 
and  the  most  certain  satisfaction  of  our  reason. 
But  then  all  these  coming  into  question,  submit 
themselves  to  reason  ;  that  is,  to  be  judged  by 
human  understanding,  upon  the  best  grounds  and 
information  it  can  receive.  So  that  Scripture, 
tradition,  councils,  and  fathers,  are  the  evidence 
in  a  question,  but  reason  is  the  judge  ;  that  is,  we 
being  the  persons  that  are  to  be  persuaded,  we 


280  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

must  see  that  we  be  persuaded  reasonably.  And 
it  is  unreasonable  to  assent  to  a  lesser  evidence, 
when  a  greater  and  clearer  is  propounded ;  but  of 
that  every  man  for  himself  is  to  take  cognizance, 
if  he  be  able  to  judge ;  if  he  be  not,  he  is  not 
bound  under  the  tie  of  necessity  to  know  any 
thing  of  it.  That  that  is  necessary  shall  be  cer- 
tainly conveyed  to  him  :  God,  that  best  can,  will 
certainly  take  care  for  that;  for  if  he  does  not,  it 
becomes  to  be  not  necessary ;  or,  if  it  should  still 
remain  necessary,  and  he  damned  for  not  knowing 
it,  and  yet  to  know  it  be  not  in  his  power,  then 
who  can  help  it?  there  can  be  no  further  care  in 
this  business.  In  other  things,  there  being  no 
absolute  and  prime  necessity,  we  are  left  to  our 
liberty  to  judge  that  way  that  makes  best  demon- 
stration of  our  piety,  and  of  our  love  to  God  and 
truth;  not  that  way  that  is  always  the  best  argu- 
ment of  an  excellent  understanding,  for  this  may 
be  a  blessing,  but  the  other  only  is  a  duty. 

And  now  that  we  are  pitched  upon  that  way 
which  is  most  natural  and  reasonable  in  determi- 
nation of  ourselves,  rather  than  of  questions, 
which  are  often  indeterminable,  since  right  reason 
proceeding  upon  the  best  grounds  it  can,  viz.  of 
divine  revelation  and  human  authority  and  proba- 
bility, is  our  guide  :  and  supposing  the  assistance 
of  God's  Spirit  (which  he  never  denies  them  that 
fail  not  of  their  duty  in  all  such  things  in  which 
he  requires  truth  and  certainty),  it  remains  that 
we  consider  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  men  are  so 
much  deceived  in  the  use  of  their  reason  and 
choice  of  their  religion ;  and  that,  in  this  account, 
we  distinguish  those  accidents  which  make  error 
innocent,  from  those  which  make  it  become  a 
heresy. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  281 


SECTION    XI. 

Of  some  Caifses  of  Error  in  the  exercise  of  Reason 
zvhich  are  exculpate  in  themselves. 

1.  Then  I  consider  that  (here  are  a  great  many 
inculpable  can ses^of  error,  which  are  arguments  of 
human  imperfections,  not  convictions  of  a  sin. 
Afid  first,  the  variety  of  human  understandings 
is  so  great,  that  what  is  plain  and  apparent  to 
one,  is  difficult  and  obscure  to  another;  one  will 
observe  a  consequent  from  a  common  principle, 
and  another  from  thence  will  conclude  the  quite 
contrary.  When  St.  Peter  sav/  the  vision  of  the 
sheet  let  down,  with  all  sorts  of  beasts  in  it,  and  a 
voice,  saying,  '  Eise,  Peter,  kill  and  eat,'  if  he  had 
not,  by  a  particular  assistance,  been  directed  to  i'n^ 
meaning  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  possibly  he  might 
have  had  other  apprehensions  of  the  meaning  of 
that  vision;  for  to  myself  it  seems  naturally  to 
speak  nothing  but  the  abolition  of  the  Mosaica! 
rites,  and  the  restitution  of  us  to  that  part  of  Chris- 
tian liberty  which  consists  in  the  promiscuous 
eating  of  meats  ;  and  yet,  besides  this,  there  want 
not  some  understandings  in  the  world,  to  whom 
these  words  seem  to  give  St.  Peter  a  power  to  kill 
heretical  princes.  Methinks  it  is  a  strange  under- 
standino;  that  makes  such  extractions,  but  Bozlus 
and  Baronius  did  so.  But  men  may  understand 
what  they  please,  especially  when  they  are  to  ex- 
pound oracles.  It  was  an  argument  of  some  wit, 
but  of  singularity  of  understanding,  that  happened 
24* 


282  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

in  the  great  contestation  between  the  missals  of  St. 
Ambrose  and  St.  Gregory.  The  lot  was  thrown, 
and  God  made  to  be  judge,  so  as  he  was  tempted 
to  a  miracle,  to  answer  a  question  which  them- 
selves might  have  ended  without  much  trouble. 
The  two  missals  were  laid  upon  the  altar,  and  the 
church  door  shut  and  sealed.  By  the  morrow 
mattins,  they  found  St.  Gregory's  missal  torn  in 
pieces  (saith  the  story),  and  thrown  about  the 
church,  but  St.  Ambrose's  opened  and  laid  upon  the 
altar  in  a  posture  of  being  read.  If  I  had  been  to 
judge  of  the  meaning  of  this  miracle,  I  should  have 
made  no  scruple  to  have  said,  it  had  been  the  will 
of  God  that  the  missal  of  St.  Ambrose,  which  had 
been  anciently  used,  and  publicly  tried  and  ap- 
proved of,  should  still  be  read  in  the  church,  and 
that  of  Gregory  let  alone,  it  being  torn  by  :ia 
angelic  hand,  as  an  argument  of  its  imperfection, 
or  of  the  inconvenience  of  innovation.  But  yet 
they  judged  it  otherwise ;  for  by  the  tearing  and 
scattering  about,  they  thought  it  was  meant,  it 
should  be  used  over  all  the  world,  and  that  of  St. 
Ambrose  read  only  in  the  church  of  Millain.  I 
am  more  satisfied  that  the  former  was  the  true 
meaning,  than  I  am  of  the  truth  of  the  story;  but 
we  must  suppose  that.  And  now  there  might 
have  been  eternal  disputings  about  the  meaning 
of  the  miracle,  and  nothing  left  to  determine, 
when  two  fancies  are  the  litigants,  and  the  con- 
testations about  probabilities  hinc  inch.  And  1 
doubt  not  this  was  one  cause  of  so  great  variety 
of  opinions  in  the  primitive  church,  when  they 
proved  their  several  opinions,  which  were  myste- 
rious questions  of  Christian  theology,  by  testimo- 
nies out  of  the  obscurer  prophets,  out  of  the 
Psalms  and  Canticles,  as  who  please  to  observe 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  283 

their  arguments  of  discourse  and  actions  of  council 
shall  perceive  thej  verj^  much  used  to  do.  Now 
although  men's  understandings  be  not  equal,  and 
that  it  is  fit  the  best  understandings  should 
prevail,  yet  that  will  not  satisfy  the  weaker 
understandings;  because  all  men  will  not  think 
that  another  understanding  is  better  than  his  own; 
or,  at  least,  not  in  such  a  particular  in  which,  with 
fancy,  he  hath  pleased  himself.  But  commonly 
they  that  are  least  able  are  most  bold,  and  the 
more  ignorant  are  the  more  confident:  therefore 
it  is  but  necessary,  if  he  would  have  another  bear 
with  him,  he. also  should  bear  with  another;  and 
if  he  will  not  be  prescribed  to,  neither  let  him 
prescribe  to  others.  And  there  is  the  more  reason 
in  this,  because  such  modesty  is  commonly  to  be 
desired  of  the  moi-e  imperfect ;  for  wise  men  know 
the  ground  of  their  persuasion,  and  have  their 
confidence  proportionable  to  their  evidence ;  others 
have  not,  but  overact  their  trifles  :  and  therefore 
I  said,  it  is  but  a  reasonable  demand,  that  they 
that  have  the  least  reason  should  not  be  most  im- 
perious ;  and  for  others,  it  being  reasonable  enough, 
for  all  their  great  advantages  upon  other  men,  they 
will  be  soon  persuaded  to  it;  for  although  wise 
men  might  be  bolder,  in  respect  of  the  persons 
of  others  less  discerning,  yet  they  know  there  are 
but  few  things  so  certain  as  to  create  much  bold- 
ness and  confidence  of  assertion.  If  they  do  not, 
they  are  not  the  men  I  take  them  for. 

2.  When  an  action  or  opinion  is  commenced 
with  zeal  and  piety,  against  a  known  vice,  or  a 
vicious  person,  commonly  all  the  mistakes  of  its 
proceeding  are  made  sacred  by  the  holiness  of  the 
principle,  and  so  abuses  the  persuasions  of  good 
people,  that  they  make  it  as  a  characteristic  note 


284  THE  SACRED   CLASSICS. 

to  distinguish  good  persons  from  bad  ;  and  tiien, 
whatever  error  is  consecrated  by  tliis  means,  is 
therefore  made  the  more  lasting,  because  it  is  ac- 
counted holy;  and  the  persons  are  not  easily 
accounted  heretics,  because  they  erred  upon  a 
pious  principle.  There  is  a  memorable  instance 
in  one  of  the  greatest  questions  of  Christendom, 
viz.  concerning  images.  For  when  Philippicus 
had  espied  the  images  of  the  six  first  synods  upon 
the  front  of  a  church,  he  caused  tlicm  to  be  pulled 
down  :  now  he  did  it  in  hatred  of  the  sixth  synod  ; 
for  he,  being  a  Monothelite,  stood  condemned  by 
that  synod.  The  catholics  that  were  zealous  foi- 
the  sixth  synod,  caused  the  images  and  represent- 
ments  to  be  put  up  again ;  and  then  sprung  the 
question  concerning  the  lawfulness  of  images  in 
churches.*  Philippicus  and  his  party  strived,  by 
suppressing  images,  to  do  disparagement  to  the 
sixth  synod  ;  the  catholics,  to  pi-eserve  the  honor 
of  the  sixth  synod,  would  uphold  images.  And 
then  the  question  came  to  be  changed,  and  th«y 
who  were  easy  enough  to  be  persuaded  to  pull 
down  images,  were  overawed  by  a  prejudice 
against  the  Monothelites;  and  the  Monothelites 
strived  to  maintain  the  advantage  they  had  got,  by 
a  just  and  pious  pretence  against  images.  The 
Monothelites  would  have  secured  their  error  by 
the  advantage  and  consociation  of  a  truth  ;  and 
the  other  would  rather  defend  a  dubious  and 
disputable  error,  than  lose  and  let  go  a  certain 
truth.  And  thus  the  case  stood,  and  the  suc- 
cessors of  both  parts  were  led  invincibly :  for 
when  the  heresy  of  the  Monothelites  disbanded 
(which  it  did  in  a  while  after),  yet  the  opinion  of 
the  Iconoclasts,  and  the  question  of  images  grew 
*  Vid.  Paulum  Diaoonuin. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  285 

stronger.  Yet,  since  the  Iconoclasts,  at  the  first 
were  heretics,  not  for  their  breaking  images,  but 
for  denying  the  two  wills  of  Christ,  his  divine  and 
his  human ; — that  they  were  called  Iconoclasts 
was  to  distinguish  their  opinion  in  the  question 
concerning  the  images ; — but  that  then  Iconoclasts 
so  easily  had  the  reputation  of  heretics,  was  be- 
cause of  the  other  opinion,  which  was  conjunct  in 
their  persons ;  which  opinion  men  afterwards  did 
not  easily  distinguish  in  them,  but  took  them  for 
heretics  in  gross,  and  whatsoever  they  held  to  be 
heretical.  And  thus,  upon  this  prejudice,  grev.' 
great  advantages  to  the  veneration  of  images  ;  and 
the  persons  at  first  were  much  to  be  excused,  be- 
cause they  were  misguided  by  that  which  might 
have  abused  the  best  men.  And  if  Epiphanius, 
who  was  as  zealous  against  images  in  churches  as 
Philippicus  or  Leo  Isaurus,  had  but  begun  a  public 
contestation,  and  engaged  emperors  to  have  made 
decrees  against  them,  Christendom  would  have 
had  other  apprehensions  of  it  than  they  had  when 
the  Monothelites  began  it :  for  few  men  will  endure 
a  truth  from  the  mouth  of  the  devil,  and  if  the 
person  be  suspected,  so  are  his  ways  too.  And 
it  is  a  great  subtlety  of  the  devil  so  to  temper 
truth  and  falsehood  in  the  same  person,  that  truth 
may  lose  much  of  its  reputation  by  its  mixture 
with  error,  and  the  error  may  become  more 
plausible  by  reason  of  its  conjunction  with  truth. 
And  this  we  see  by  too  much  experience ;  for  we 
see  many  truths  are  blasted  in  their  reputation, 
because  persons  whom  we  think  we  hate,  upon 
just  grounds  of  religion,  have  taught  them.  And 
it  was  plain  enough  in  the  case  of  Maldonat,*'  that 
said  of  an  explication  of  a  place  of  Scripture,  that 
*  In  cap.  6,  Johaii. 


28G  THE    SACKKD     CLASSICS. 

it  was  most  agreeable  to  antiquity,  but  because 
Calvin  had  so  expounded  it  he  therefore  chose  a 
new  one  :  this  was  malice.  But  when  a  prejudice 
works  tacitly,  undiscernibly,  and  irresistibly,  o\ 
the  person  so  wrought  upon,  the  man  is  to  be 
pitied,  not  condemned,  though  possibly  his  opi^iion 
deserves  it  higlily.  And  therefore  it  hath  been 
usual  to  discredit  doctrines  by  the  personal  de- 
failances  of  them  that  preach  them,  or  with  ilie 
disreputation  of  that  sect  that  maintains  then), 
in  conjunction  wdth  other  perverse  doctrines. 
Faustus,*  the  Manichee,  in  St.  Austin,  glories 
much  that  in  their  religion  God  v/as  worsldped 
purely,  and  without  images.  St.  Austin  liked  it 
well,  for  so  it  was  in  his  too;  but  from  hence, 
Sanders  concludes,  that  to  pull  down  images  in 
churches  was  the  heresy  of  the  Manichees.  The 
Jews  endure  no  images,  therefore  Bellarmine  makes 
it  to  be  a  piece  of  Judaism  to  oppose  them.t  He 
might  as  well  have  concluded  against  saying  our 
prayers,  and  church  music,  that  it  is  Judaical  be- 
cause the  Jews  used  it.  And  he  would  be  loth 
to  be  served  so  himself;  for  he  that  had  a  mind  to 
use  such  arguments  might,  with  much  better 
probability,  conclude  against  their  sacran^ent  of 
extreme  unction ;  because,  when  the  miraculous 
healing  was  ceased,  then  they  were  not  catholics 
but  heretics  that  did  transfer  it  to  the  use  of  dying 
persons,  says  Irenaius  ;t  for  so  did  the  Valenti- 
nians :  and,  indeed,  this  argument  is  something 
better  than  I  thought  for  at  first,  because  it  was 
in  Irenceus's  time  reckoned  among  the  heresies. 

*Lib.  XX,  c.  3,  Cont.  Faustum  Man.  Lib.  i.  c.  ult.  de 
Imagin, 

t  De  Reliq.  SS.  iib.  ii.  c.  G,  Sect.  Nicolaus. 
t  Lib.  i.  c.  S,  Adv.  Hter. 


THE  LIBERTV  OF  PROPHESYING.  287 

But  there  are  a  sort  of  men  that  are  even  with 
them,  and  hate  some  good  things  which  the  church 
of  Rome  teaches,  because  she  who  teaches  so 
many  errors,  hath  been  the  publisher,  and  is  the 
practiser  of  those  things.  I  confess  the  thing  is 
always  unreasonable,  but  sometimes  it  is  invinci- 
ble and  innocent;  and  then  maj  serve  to  abate 
the  furj  of  all  such  decretory  sentences  as  con- 
demn all  the  world  but  their  own  disciples. 

S.  There  are  some  opinions  that  have  gone 
liand  in  liand  with  a  blessing,  and  a  prosperous 
profession  ;  and  i^ae  good  success  of  their  defenders 
hath  amused  many  good  people,  because  they 
thought  they  heard  CJod's  voice  where  they  saw 
God's  h.and ;  and  therefore  have  rushed  upon  such 
opinions  with  great  piety,  and  as  great  mistaking. 
For  where  they  once  had  entertained  a  fear  of 
God,  and  apprehension  of  his  so  sensible  declara- 
tion, such  a  fear  produces  scruple;  and  a  scrupu- 
lous conscience  is  always  to  be  pitied,  because, 
lliougli  it  is  seldom  wise,  it  is  always  pious.  And 
this  very  thing  liath  prevailed  so  far  upon  the 
understandings,  even  of  wise  men,  that  Bcllarmine 
makes  it  a  note  of  the  true  church  :  which  opinion, 
wlien  it  prevails,  is  a  ready  way  to  make  that, 
instead  of  martyis,  all  men  should  prove  heretics 
or  apostates  in  persecution;  for  since  men  in 
misery  are  very  suspicious,  out  of  strong  desires 
to  find  out  the  cause,  that  by  removing  it  they 
may  be  relieved,  they,  apprehend  that  to  be  it  that 
is  first  presented  to  their  fears  ;  and  then,  if  ever 
truth  be  afflicted,  she  shall  also  be  destroyed.  I 
will  say  nothing  in  defiance  of  this  fancy,  although 
all  the  experience  in  the  world  says  it  is  false  ; 
and  that,  of  all  men,  christians  should  least  believe 
it  to  be  true,  to  whom  a  perpetual  cross  is  their 


288  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

certain  expectation  (and  the  argument  is  like  the 
moon,  for  which  no  garment  can  be  fit ;  it  alters 
according  to  the  success  of  human  affairs,  and  in 
one  age  will  serve  a  papist,  and  in  another  a  pro- 
testant) ;  yet,  when  such  an  opinion  does  prevail 
upon  timorous  persons,  the  malignity  of  their  error 
(if  any  be  consequent  to  this  fancy,  and  taken  up 
upon  the  reputation  of  a  prosperous  heresy)  is  not 
to  be  considered  simply  and  nakedly,  but  abate- 
ment is  to  be  made  in  a  just  proportion  to  that 
fear,  and  to  that  apprehension. 

4.  Education  is  so  great  and  so  invincible  a  pre- 
judice, that  he  who  masters  the  inconvenience  of 
it  is  more  to  be  commended  than  he  can  justly  be 
blamed  that  complies  v>'ith  it.  For  men  do  not 
always  call  them  principles  which  are  the  prime 
fountains  of  reason,  from  M'hence  such  consequents 
naturally  flow,  as  are  to  guide  the  actions  and  dis- 
courses of  men :  but  they  are  principles  wiiich 
they  are  first  taught,  which  they  sucked  in  next  to 
their  milk;  and,  by  a  proportion  to  those  first 
principles,  they  usually  take  their  estimate  of 
propositions.  For  whatsoever  is  taught  to  them 
at  first  they  believe  infinitely,  for  they  know  no- 
thing to  the  contrary:  they  have  had  no  other 
masters  whose  theorems  might  abate  the  strength  of 
their  first  persuasions.  And  it  is  a  great  advantage 
in  those  cases  to  get  possession ;  and  before  their 
first  principles  can  be  dislodged,  they  are  made 
habitual  and  complexional ;  it  is  in  their  nature 
then  to  believe  them,  and  this  is  helped  forward 
very  much  by  the  advantage  of  love  and  veneration 
which  we  have  to  the  first  parents  of  our  persua- 
sions ;  and  we  see  it  in  the  orders  of  regulars  in 
the  church  of  Rome.  That  opinion  which  was  the 
opinion  of  their  patron  or  founder,  or  of  some 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  489 

eminent  personage  of  the  institute,  is  enough  to 
engage  all  the  order  to  be  of  that  opinion;  and  it 
is  strange  that  all  the  Dominicans  shall  be  of  one 
opinion  in  the  matter  of  predetermination  and 
immaculate  conception,  and  all  the  Franciscans 
of  the  quite  contrary ;  as  if  their  understandings 
were  formed  in  a  different  mould,  and  furnished 
with  various  principles  by  their  very  rule.  Now 
this  prejudice  works  by  many  principles ;  but  h'ow 
strongly  they  do  possess  the  understanding,  is 
visible  in  that  great  instance  of  the  affection  and 
perfect  persuasion  the  weaker  sort  of  people 
have  to  that  which  they  call  the  religion  of  their 
forefathers.*  You  may  as  well  charm  a  fever 
asleep  with  the  noise  of  bells,  as  make  any  pre- 
tence of  reason  against  that  religion  which  old  men 
have  entailed  upon  their  heirs  male  so  many  gene- 
rations till  they  can  prescribe.  And  the  apostles 
found  this  to  be  most  true  in  the  extremest  diffi- 
culty they  met  with,  to  contest  against  the  rites  of 
Moses,  and  the  long  superstition  of  the  Gentiles, 
which  they  therefore  thought  lit  to  be  retained, 
because  they  had  done  so  formerly;  'proceeding 
as  things  were  or  had  been,  not  as  they  ought  to 
be,'t  and  all  the  blessings  of  this  life  which  God 
gave  them,  they  had  in  conjunction  with  their  re- 
ligion, and  therefore  they  believed  it  was  for  their 
religion,  and  this  persuasion  was  bound  fast  in 
them  with  ribs  of  iron ;  the  apostles  were  forced 
to  unloose  the  whole  conjuncture  of  parts  and 
principles  in  their  understandings,  before  they 
could  make  them  malleable  and  receptive  of  any 

*  "  Optima  rati  ea  quae  magno  assensu  recepta  sunt,  quo- 
rumq.  exempla  multa  sunt ;  nee  ad  rationem,  sed  ad  simili- 
tudinem  vivimus." — Sen.  Vid.  Minut.  Fel.  octav. 

t  Pergentes  non  quo  eundum  est,  sed  quo  itur. 


290  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

impresses :  but  the  observation  and  experience  of 
all  wise  men  can  justify  this  truth.  All  that  I 
shall  say  to  the  present  purpose  is  this,  that  con- 
sideration is  to  be  had  to  the  weakness  of  persons 
when  they  are  prevailed  upon  by  so  innccent  a 
prejudice ;  and,  when  there  cannot  be  arguments 
strong  enough  to  overmaster  an  habitual  persua- 
sion, bred  with  a  man,  nourished  up  with  him,  that 
always  eat  at  his  table,  and  lay  in  his  bosom,  he  is 
not  easily  to  be  called  heretic ;  for,  if  he  keeps  the 
foundation  of  faith,  other  articles  are  not  so  clearly 
demonstrated  on  either  side  but  that  a  man  may 
innocently  be  abused  to  the  contrary.  And  there- 
fore, in  this  case,  to  handle  him  charitably,  is  but 
to  do  him  justice ;  and  when  an  opinion  in  mino- 
ribus  articulis,  "  in  points  of  inferior  moment,"  is 
entertained  upon  the  title  and  stock  of  education, 
it  may  be  the  better  permitted  to  him,  since  upon 
no  better  stock  nor  stronger  arguments,  most 
men  entertain  their  whole  religion,  even  Chris- 
tianity itself. 

5.  There  are  some  persons  of  a  differing  persua- 
sion, who,  therefore,  are  the  rather  to  be  tolerated, 
because  the  indirect  practices  and  impostures  of 
their  adversaries  have  confirmed  them,  that  those 
opinions  which  they  disavow  are  not  from  God,  as 
being  upheld  by  means  not  of  God's  appointment, 
for  it  is  no  unreasonable  discourse  to  say,  that  God 
will  not  be  served  with  a  lie,  for  he  does  not  need 
one,  and  he  hath  means  enough  to  support  all  those 
truths  which  he  hath  commanded ;  and  hath  sup- 
plied every  honest  cause  with  enough  for  its  mainte- 
nance and  to  contest  against  its  adversaries.  And 
(but  that  they  which  use  indirect  arts  will  not  be 
willing  to  lose  any  of  their  unjust  advantages,  nor 
yet  be  charitable  to  those  persons  whom  either  to 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  291 

gain  or  to  undo  thej  leave  nothing  unattempted) 
the  church  of  Rome  hath  much  reason  not  to  be  so 
decretory  in  her  sentences  against  persons  of  a  dif- 
fering persuasion ;  for  if  their  cause  were  entirely 
the  cause  of  God,  they  have  given  wise  people 
reason  to  suspect  it,  because  some  of  them  have 
gone  to  the  devil  to  defend  it.  And  if  it  be  re- 
membered what  tragedies  were  stirred  up  against 
Lutlier,  for  saying  the  devil  had  taught  him  an 
argument  against  the  mass,  it  will  be  of  as  great 
advantage  against  them  that  they  go  to  the  devil  for 
many  arguments  to  support  not  only  the  mass,  but 
the  other  distinguishing  articles  of  their  church  ;  I 
instance  in  the  notorious  forging  of  miracles,  and 
framing  of  false  and  ridiculous  legends.  For  the 
former,  I  need  no  other  instances  than  what  hap- 
pened in  the  great  contestation  about  the  immacu- 
late conception,  when  there  w^ere  miracles  brought 
on  both  sides  to  prove  the  contradictory  parts ; 
and  though  it  be  more  than  probable  that  both  sides 
played  the  jugglers,  yet  the  Dominicans  had  the 
ill  luck  to  be  discovered,  and  the  actors  burned  at 
Berne.  But  this  discovery  happened  by  Provi- 
dence ;  for  the  Dominican  opinion  hath  more  de- 
grees of  probability  than  the  Franciscan,  is  clearly 
more  consonant  both  to  Scripture  and  all  antiquity, 
and  this  part  of  it  is  acknowledged  by  the  greatest 
patrons  themselves,  as  Salmeron,  Posa,  and  Wad- 
ding; yet  because  they  played  the  knaves  in  a  just 
question,  and  used  false  arts  to  maintain  a  true 
proposition,  God  Almighty,  to  show  that  he  will 
not  be  served  by  a  lie,  was  pleased  rather  to  dis- 
cover the  imposture  in  the  right  opinion  than  in 
the  false ;  since  nothing  is  more  dishonorable  to 
God  than  to  offer  a  sin  in  sacrifice  to  him,  and 
notliing  more  incongruous   in  the  nature  of  the 


£92  THE  SACRED   CLASSICS. 

thing,  than  that  truth  and  falsehood  should  sup- 
port each  other,  or  that  true  doctrine  should  live  at 
the  charges  of  a  lie.  And  he  that  considers  the 
arguments  for  each  opinion^  will  easily  conclude, 
that  if  God  would  not  have  truth  confirmed  by  a 
lie,  much  less  would  he  himself  attest  a  lie  witli  a 
true  miracle.  And  by  this  ground  it  will  easily 
follow,  that  the  Franciscan  party  although  they 
had  better  luck  than  the  Dominicans,  yet  had  not 
more  honesty,  because  their  cause  was  worse,  and 
therefore  their  arguments  no  whit  the  better. 
And  although  the  argument  drawn  from  miracles 
is  good  to  attest  a  holy  doctrine,  which  by  its  own 
worth  will  support  itself,  after  way  is  a  little 
made  by  miracles ;  yet  of  itself,  and  by  its  own 
reputation,  it  will  not  support  any  fabric:  for 
instead  of  proving  a  doctrine  to  be  true,  it  makes 
that  the  miracles  themselves  are  suspected  to  be 
illusions,  if  they  be  pretended  in  behalf  of  a  doc- 
trine which  we  think  wc  have  reason  to  account 
false.  And  therefore  the  Jews  did  not  believe 
Christ's  doctrine  for  his  miracles,  but  disbelieved 
the  truth  of  his  miracles  because  they  did  not  like 
his  doctrine.  And  if  the  holiness  of  his  doctrine, 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  by  inspirations  and  infusions, 
and  by  that  which  St.  Peter  calls  *  a  surer  word  of 
prophecy,'  had  not  attested  the  divinity  both  of 
his  person  and  his  office,  we  should  have  wanted 
many  degrees  of  confidence  which  now  we  have 
upon  the  truth  of  Christian  religion.*  Eut  now, 
since  we  are  foretold  by  this  surer  word  of  pro- 
phecy, that  is,  the  prediction  of  Jesus  Christ,  that 
Antichrist  should  come  in  all  wonders  and  signs, 
and  lying  miracles ;  and  that  the  church  saw  much 

*  Vide  Baron.  A.  D.  68,  n.  22.  Pliilostrat.  lib.  iv.  t.  485. 
Coinpend.  Cedren,  p.  202. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  293 

of  that  already  verified  in  Simon  Magus  Apollo- 
nius  Tyanaeus,  and  Manetho,  and  divers  heretics  ;* 
it  is  now  come  to  that  pass,  that  the  argument,  in 
its  best  advantage,  proves  nothing  so  much  as  that 
the  doctrine  which  it  pretends  to  prove  is  to  be 
suspected,  because  it  was  foretold  that  false  doc- 
trine should  be  obtruded  under  such  pretences.  But 
then,  when  not  only  true  miracles  are  an  insuffi- 
cient argument  to  prove  a  trutli,  since  the  esta- 
blishment of  Christianity,  but  that  the  miracles 
themselves  are  false  and  spurious ;  it  makes  that 
doctrine  in  whose  defence  they  come,  justly  to  be 
suspected,  because  they  are  a  demonstration  that 
the  interested  persons  use  all  means,  leave  nothing 
unattempted,  to  prove  their  propositions ;  but 
since  they  so  fail  as  to  bring  nothing  from  God,  but 
something  from  the  devil  for  its  justification,  it  is 
a  great  sign  that  the  doctrine  is  false,  because  we 
know  the  devil,  unless  it  be  against  his  will,  does 
nothing  to  prove  a  true  proposition  that  makes 
against  him.  And  now,  then,  those  persons  who 
will  endure  no  man  of  another  opinion,  might  do 
well  to  remember  how,  by  their  exorcisms,  their 
devil's  tricks  at  Loudun,  and  the  other  side  pre- 
tending to  cure  mad  folks  and  persons  bewitched, 
and  the  many  discoveries  of  their  juggling,  they 
have  given  so  much  reason  to  their  adversaries  to 
suspect  their  doctrine,  that  either  they  must  not 
be  ready  to  condemn  their  persons  who  are  made 
suspicious  by  their  indirect  proceeding,  in  attest- 
ation of  that  which  they  value  so  high  as  to  call 
their  religion,  or  else  they  must  condemn  them- 
selves for  making  the  scandal  active  and  effectual. 
As  for  false  legends,  it  will  be  of  the  same 
consideration,  because  they  are  false  testimonies 

*  Stapelton,  Prompt.  Mora],  pars  ^Estiva,  p.  672. 
25* 


294  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

of  miracles  that  were  never  done;  which  diifers 
only  from  the  other,  as  a  lie  in  words  from  a  lie 
in  action.  But  of  this  we  have  witness  enough  in 
that  decree  of  pope  Leo  X,  session  the  eleventh 
of  the  last  Lateran  council,  where  he  excommuni- 
cates all  the  forgers  and  inventors  of  visions  and 
false  miracles,  which  is  a  testimony  that  it  was 
then  a  practice  so  public  as  to  need  a  law  for  its 
suppression;  and  if  any  man  shall  doubt  w-lietlier 
it  were  so  or  no,  let  him  see  th^  Centum  Grava- 
mina of  the  princes  of  Germany,  where  it  is  high- 
ly complained  of.  But  the  extreme  stupidity  and 
sottishness  of  the  inventors  of  lying  stories  is  so 
great,  as  to  give  occasion  to  some  persons  to 
suspect  the  truth  oi"  all  church  story  f  witness  the 
Legend  of  Lombardy,  of  the  author  of  which  the 
bishop  of  the  Canaries  gives  this  testimony :  '-'  You 
will  oftener  read  in  this  book  monstrous  prodigies 
than  real  miracles ;  he  vv'ho  wrote  it  was  a  sliame- 
less  and  dull  fellow,  and  far  enough  from  being 
of  a  serious  and  judicious  mind."t  But,  I  need 
not  descend  so  low;  for  St.  Gregory  and  V.  Bede 
themselves  reported  miracles,  for  the  athority  of 
which  they  only  had  the  report  of  the  common 
people  ;±  and  it  is  not  certain  that  St.  Jerome  had 
so  much  in  his  stories  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  An- 
thony, and  the  fauns  and  the  satyrs  which  appeared 
to  them,  and  desired  their  prayers.§  But  I  shall 
only,  by  way  of  eminency,  note  what  Sir  Thomas 
More  says,  in  his  epistle  to  Ruthal,  the  king's 
secretary,  before  the  dialogue  of  Lucian  (Philop- 

*  Tfifc  ydip  /«»  iipn/uiiva.  inCiu^p/uivoi,  itcti  to.  ctCiAcrrsos  i!p>:,uiva. 
vTroTrnuic-QM  '^ctfcLs-niv^nTiv . — Isid.  Pelus. 

t  "  In  illo  enim  libro  miraculorum  monstra  ssepius  quam 
■vera  rairacula  lecras.  Hanc  homo  scripsit  ferrei  oris,  plumbei 
cordis,  animi  certe  parum  severi  et  prudentis." 

I  Vide  lib.  xi.  loc.  Theol.  cap.  6.         §  Canus,  ibid. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  £95 

seudes) ;  that,  therefore,  he  undertook  tlie  transla- 
tion of  that  dialogue,  to  free  the  world  from  a 
superstition  that  crept  in  under  the  face  and  title 
of  religion.  For  such  lies,  sajs  he,  are  transmitted 
to  us  with  such  authority,  that  a  certain  impostor 
had  persuaded  St.  Austin,  that  the  very  fable 
which  Lucian  scoffs,  and  makes  sport  withal  in 
that  dialogue,*  was  a  real  story,  and  acted  in  his 
own  days.  The  epistle  is  worth  the  reading  to 
this  purpose :  but,  he  says,  this  abuse  grew  to  such 
a  height,  that  scarce  any  life  of  any  saint  or 
martyr  is  truly  related,  but  is  full  of  lies  and 
lying  wonders;  and  some  persons  thought  they 
served  God,  if  they  did  honor  to  God's  saints  by 
inventing  some  prodigious  story  or  miracle  for 
tlieir  reputation.  So  that  now  it  is  no  wonder, 
if  the  most  pious  men  are  apt  to  believe,  and  the 
greatest  historians  are  easy  enough  to  report  such 
stories,  which,  serving  to  a  good  end,  are  also 
consigned  by  the  report  of  persons  otherwise  pious 
and  prudent  enough.  I  will  not  instance  in 
Vincentius  his  Speculum,  Turonensis,  Thomas 
Cantipratanus,  John  Herolt,  Vitx  Patrum,^  nor 
the  revelations  of  St.  Bridget,  though  confirmed 
by  two  popes,  Martin  V,  and  Boniface  IX  :  even 
the  best  and  most  deliberate  amongst  them,  Lip- 
poman,  Surius,  Lipsius,  Bzovius,  and  Baronius, 
are  so  full  of  fables,  that  they  cause  great  disrepu- 
tation to  the  other  monuments  and  records  of 
antiquity,  and  yet  do  no  advantage  to  tlie  cause 
under  which  they  serve  and  take  pay.  They  do 
no  good,  and  much  luirt;  but  yet,  accidentallj', 

*  Viz.Deduobusspurinis,alterodecedente,  alteroinvitam 
redeunte  post  viginti  dies ;  qiiam  in  aliis  nominibus  ridet  Lu- 
cianus.  Vide  etiatn  argumentum  Gilberti  Cognati,  in  Annotat 
in  hiinc  Dialog.  ^ 

f  Vide  Palaeot.  de  Sacra  Sindone,  part  i.  Epist.  ad  Lector 


S96  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

they  may  procure  this  advantage  to  charity,  since 
they  do  none  to  faith;  that,  since  they  have  so 
abused  the  credit  of  story,  that  our  confidences 
want  much  of  that  support  we  should  receive  from 
her  records  of  antiquity,  yet  the  men  that  dissent 
and  are  scandalized  by  such  proceedings  should 
be  excused,  if  they  should  chance  to  be  afraid  of 
truth  that  hath  put  on  garments  of  imposture ;  and, 
since  much  violence  is  done  to  the  truth  and 
certainty  of  their  judging,  let  none  be  done  to 
their  liberty  of  judging :  since  they  cannot  meet 
a  right  guide,  let  them  have  a  charitable  judge. 
And,  since  it  is  one  very  great  argument  against 
Simon  Magus  and  ag&inst  Mahomet,  that  we  can 
prove  their  miracles  to  be  impostures,  it  is  much 
to  be  pitied  if  timorous  and  suspicious  persons 
shall  invincibly  and  honestly  less  apprehend  a 
truth  which  they  see  conveyed  by  such  a  testi- 
mony, which  we  all  use  as  an  argument  to  reprove 
the  Mahometan  superstition. 

6.  Here  also  comes  in  all  the  weaknesses  and 
trifling  prejudices  which  operate  not  by  their  own 
strength,  but  by  advantage  taken  from  the  weak- 
ness of  some  understandings.  Some  men  by  a 
proverb  or  a  common  saying,  are  determined  to 
the  belief  of  a  proposition,  for  which  they  have  no 
argument  better  than  such  a  proverbial  sentence. 
And  when  divers  of  the  common  people  in  Jeru- 
salem were  ready  to  yield  their  understandings  to 
the  belief  of  the  Messias,  they  were  turned  clearly 
from  their  apprehensions  by  that  proverb,  "  Look 
and  see,  does  any  good  thing  come  from  Galilee  r" 
andthis;  *'When  Christ  comes,  no  man  knows 
from  whence  he  is  ;■'  but  this  man  w^as  known  of 
what  parents,  of  what  city.  And  thus  the  weak- 
ness of  their  understanding  was  abused,  and  that 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  297 

made  the  argument  too  hard  for  them.  And  the 
whole  seventh  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  is  a 
perpetual  instance  of  the  efficacy  of  such  trifling 
prejudices,  and  the  vanity  and  weakness  of  popu- 
lar understandings.  Some  whole  ages  have  been 
abused  bj  a  definition,  which,  being  once  received, 
as  most  commonly  they  are,  upon  slight  grounds, 
they  are  taken  for  certainties  in  any  science  re- 
spectively, and  for  principles ;  and  upon  their 
reputation  men  use  to  frame  conclusions,  which 
must  be  false  or  uncertain,  according  as  the  defi- 
nitions are.  And  he  that  hath  observed  any  thing 
of  the  weaknesses  of  men,  and  the  successions  of 
groundless  doctrines  from  age  to  age,  and  how 
seldom  definitions  which  are  put  into  systems,  or 
that  derive  from  the  fathers,  or  approved  among 
school -men,  are  examined  by  persons  of  the  same 
interests,  will  bear  me  witness,  how  many  great 
inconveniences  press  hard  upon  the  persuasions 
of  men,  who  are  abused,  and  yet  never  consider 
who  hurt  them.  Others,  and  they  very  many,  are 
led  by  authority,  or  examples  of  princes,  and 
great  personages  :  "  Have  any  of  the  mlers  be- 
lieved on  him  ?"*  Some,  by  the  reputation  of  one 
learned  man,  are  carried  into  any  persuasion 
whatsoever.  And,  in  the  middle  and  latter  ages 
of  the  church,  this  was  the  more  considerable,  be- 
cause the  infinite  ignorance  of  the  clerks  and  the 
men  of  the  long  robe,  gave  them  over  to  be  led  by 
those  few  guides  which  were  marked  to  them  by 
an  eminency,  much  more  than  their  ordinary; 
which  also  did  the  nuore  amuse  them,  because 
most  commonly  they  were  fit  for  nothing  but  to 
admire  what  they  understood  not ;  their  learning 
then  was  in  some  skill  in  the  master  of  the  sen- 
*  John,  vii. 


^98  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

tences,  in  Aquinas  or  Scotus,  whom  they  admired 
next  to  the  most  intelligent  order  of  angels. 
Hence  came  opinions  that  made  sects  and  division 
of  names — Thomists,  Scotists,  Albertists,  Nomi- 
nals,  Reals,  and  I  know  not  what  monsters  of 
names;  and  whole  families  of  the  same  opinion, 
the  whole  institute  of  an  order  being  engaged  to 
believe  according  to  the  opinion  of  some  leading 
man  of  the  same  order ;  as  if  such  an  opinion  were 
imposed  upon  them  as  a  proof  of  holy  obedience. 
But  this  inconvenience  is  greater  when  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  mistake  runs  higher,  when  the  opinion 
is  derived  from  a  primitive  man  and  a  saint ;  for 
then  it  often  happens,  that  what  at  first  was  but 
a  plain,  innocent  seduction,  comes  to  be  made 
sacred  by  the  veneration  which  is  consequent  to 
the  person,  for  having  lived  long  agone ;  and  then, 
because  the  person  is  also  since  canonized,  the 
eiTor  is  almost  made  eternal,  and  the  cure  despe- 
rate. These,  and  the  like  prejudices,  which  are 
as  various  as  the  miseries  of  humanity,  or  the 
variety  of  human  understandings,  are  not  absolute 
excuses,  unless  to  some  persons ;  but  truly,  if  they 
be  to  any,  they  are  exemptions  to  all,  from  being 
pressed  with  too  peremptory  a  sentence  against 
them;  especially  if  we  consider  what  leave  is 
given  to  all  men,  by  the  church  of  Rome,  to  follow 
any  one  probable  doctor,  in  an  opinion  which  is 
contested  against  by  many  more.  And  as  for  the 
doctors  of  the  other  side,  they  being  destitute  of 
any  pretences  to  an  infallible  medium  to  deter- 
mine questions,  must,  of  necessity,  allow  the  same 
liberty  to  the  people,  to  be  as  prudent  as  they  can 
in  the  choice  of  a  fallible  guide ;  and  when  they 
have  chosen,  if  they  do  follow  him  into  error,  the 
matter  is  not  so  inexpiable  for  being  deceived  in 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  299 

using  the  best  guides  we  had,  which  guides,  be- 
cause themselves  were  abused,  did  also,  against 
tiieir  wills,  deceive  me  :  so  that  this  prejudice  may 
the  easier  abuse  us,  because  it  is  almost  like  a 
duty  to  follow  the  dictates  of  a  probable  doctor; 
or,  if  it  be  over  acted,  or  accidentally  pass  into 
an  inconvenience,  it  is  therefore  to  be  excused, 
because  the  principle  was  not  ill,  unless  we  judge 
by  our  event,  not  by  the  antecedent  probability. 
Of  such  men  as  these  it  was  said  by  vSt.  Austin, 
"The  common  sort  of  people  are  safe,  in  their  not 
inquiring  by  their  own  industry,  and,  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  their  understanding,  relying  upon  the 
best  guides  they  can  get."* 

But  this  is  of  such  a  nature,  in  which,  as  we 
may  inculpably  be  deceived,  so  we  may  turn  it 
into  a  vice  or  a  design,  and  then  the  consequent 
errors  will  alter  the  property,  and  become  heresies. 
There  are  some  men  tliat  have  men's  persons  in 
admiration,  because  of  advantage ;  and  some  that 
have  itching  ears,  and  heap  up  teachers  to  them- 
selves. In  these  and  the  like  cases,  the  authority 
of  a  person,  and  the  prejudices  of  a  great  reputa- 
tion, is  not  the  excuse  but  the  fault :  and  a  sin  is 
so  far  from  excusing  an  error,  that  error  becomes 
a  sin  by  reason  of  its  relation  to  that  sin,  as  to  its 
parent  and  principle. 

***Caeteram  turbara  non  intelligendi  vivacitas,  sed  ere- 
dendi  simplicitas  tutissimam  facit." — Contr.  Fund.  cap.  4. 
And  Gregory  Nazianzen,  la^u  ttokkakh  tqv  kolov  to  aQclo-o.- 
vicTTov. — Orat.  xxi. 


300  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION    XII. 

Of  the  Innocency  of  Error  in  Opinion,  in  a  pious 
Person. 

And,  therefore,  as  there  are  so  many  innocent 
causes  of  error  as  there  are  weaknesses  within, 
and  harmless  and  unavoidable  prejudices  from 
without,  so,  if  ever  error  be  procured  bj  a  vice,  it 
hath  no  excuse,  but  becomes  such  a  crime,  of  so 
much  malignity,  as  to  have  influence  upon  the 
effect  and  consequent,  and,  by  communication, 
makes  it  become  criminal.  The  apostles  noted 
two  such  causes,  covetousness  and  ambition  ;  the 
former  in  them  of  the  circumcision,  and  the  latter 
in  Diotrephes  and  Simon  Magus ;  and  there  were 
some  that  were  "  led  away  by  divers  lusts  :"* 
they  were  of  the  long  robe  too ;  but  they  were  the 
she  disciples,  upon  whose  consciences  some  false 
apostles  had  influence,  by  advantage  of  their 
wantonness ;  and  thus  the  three  principles  of  all 
sin  become  also  the  principles  of  heresy — the  lust 
of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of 
life.  And  in  pursuance  of  these  arts,  the  devil 
hath  not  wanted  fuel  to  set  awork  incendiaries,  in 
all  ages  of  the  church.  The  bishops  were  always 
honorable,  and,  most  commonly,  had  great  reve- 
nues, and  a  bishopric  would  satisfy  the  two  de- 
signs of  covetousness  and  ambition ;  and  this  hath 
been  the  golden  apple  very  often  contended  for, 
and  very  often  the  cause  of  great  fires  in  the 
church.    "Thebulis  created  great  disturbances 

*  2  Tim.  iii. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  301 

in  the  ehurcb,  because  he  could  not  obtain  the 
bishopric  of  Jerusalem,"  said  Egesippus,  in  Euse- 
bius.  Tertullian  turned  Montanist,  in  discontent 
for  missing  tiie  bishopric  of  Carthage,  after  Agrip- 
pinus^  and  so  did  Montanus  himself,  for  the  same 
disconteiit,  saith  Nicephorus,  Novatus  would 
have  been  bishop  of  Rome ;  Donatus,  of  Carthage ; 
Arius,  of  Alexandria ;  Aerius,  of  Sebastia :  but 
they  ail  missed,  and  therefore  ail  of  them  vexed 
Christendom.  And  this  was  so  common  a  thing, 
that  oftentimes  the  threatening  the  church  with 
a  schism,  or  a  heresy,  was  a  design  to  get  a 
bishopric :  and  Socrates  reports  of  Asterius,  that 
he  did  frequent  the  conventicles  of  the  Aiians, 
*'  for  he  aimed  at  some  bishopric."  And  setting 
aside  the  infirmities  of  men,  and  their  innocent 
prejudices,  Epiphanius  makes  pride  to  be  the 
only  cause  of  heresies :  vCf,ig  nm  Tfox-oicr:?,  pride  and 
prejudice  cause  them  all,  the  one  criminally,,  the 
other  innocently.  And,  indeed,  St,  Paul  does 
almost  make  pride  the  only  cau&e  of  heresies  ;  his 
words  cannot  be  expounded,  unless  it  be  at  least 
the  principal :  "  If  any  man  teach  otherwise  and 
consent  not  to  sound  words,  and  to  the  doctrine 
that  is  according  to  godliness,  he  is  pix)ud,  know- 
ing nothing,  but  doting  about  questions  and  strifes 
of  words,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  railings, 
evil  surmisings."* 

The  sum  is  this ;  if  ever  an  opinion  be  begun 
with  pride,  or  managed  with  impiety,  or  ends  in  a 
crime,  the  man  turns  heretic  t  but  let  the  error  be 
never  so  great,  so  it  be  not  against  an  article  of 
creed,  if  it  be  simple,  and  hath  no  confederation 
with  the  personal  iniquity  of  the  man,  the  opinion 
is  as  innocent  as  the  person,  though,  perhaps  a? 

*  iTim.  vi.  3,4. 
26 


302  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

false  as  he  is  ignorant ;  and  therefore  shall  burn, 
though  he  himself  escape.  But  in  these  cases, 
and  many  more  (for  the  causes  of  deception  in- 
crease by  all  accidents,  and  weaknesses,  and  illu- 
sions), no  man  can  give  certain  judgment  upon 
the  persons  of  men  in  particular,  unless  the  matter 
of  fact  and  crime  be  accident  and  notorious.  The 
man  cannot,  by  human  judgment,  be  concluded  a 
heretic  unless  his  opinion  be  an  open  recession 
from  plain,  demonstrative,  divine  authority  (which 
must  needs  be  notorious,  voluntary,  vincible, 
and  criminal),  or  that  there  be  a  palpable  serving 
of  an  end,  accidental  and  extrinsical  to  the 
opinloii. 

But  this  latter  is  very  hard  to  be  discerned; 
because  those  accidental  and  adherent  crimes 
which  make  the  man  a  heretic,  in  questions  not 
simply  fundamental  or  of  necessary  practice,  are 
actions  so  internal  and  spiritual,  that  cognizance 
can  but  seldom  be  taken  of  them.  And  therefore, 
to  instance,  though  the  c-inion  of  purgatory  be 
false,  yet  to  believe  it  cannot  be  heresy,  if  a  man 
be  abused  into  the  belief  of  it  invincibly:  because 
it  is  not  a  doctrine  either  fundamentally  false  or 
practically  impious,  it  neither  proceeds  from  tlie 
will,  nor  hath  any  immediate  or  direct  influence 
upon  choice  and  manners.  And  as  for  those 
other  ends  of  upholding  that  opinion,  which 
possibly  its  patrons  may  have;  as  for  the  reputa- 
tion of  their  church's  infallibility,  for  the  advan- 
tage of  dirges,  requiems,  masses,  monthly  minds, 
anniversaries,  and  other  offices  for  the  dead,  which 
usually  are  very  profitable,  rich,  and  easy,  these 
things  may  possibly  have  sole  influences  upon 
their  understanding,  but  whether  they  Imve  or  no 
God   only  knows.     If  the  proposition  and  article 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  30S 

were  true,  these  ends  might  justly  be  subordinate, 
and  consistent  with  a  true  proposition.  And 
there  are  some  truths  that  are  also  profitable ;  as 
the  necessity  of  maintenance  to  the' clergy,  the 
doctrine  of  restitution,  giving  alms,  lending  freely, 
remitting  debts  in  cases  of  great'  necessity;  and 
it  would  be  but  an  ill  argument  that  the  preachers 
of  these  doctrines  speak  false,  because,  possibly, 
in  these  articles,  they  may  serve  their  own  ends. 
For  although  Demetrius  and  the  craftsmen  were 
without  excuse  for  resisting  the  preaching  of  St. 
Paul,  because  it  was  notorious  they  resisted  the 
truth  upon  ground  of  profit  and  personal  emolu- 
ments, and  the  matter  was  confessed  by  them- 
selves; yet,  if  the  clergy  should  maintain  their 
just  rights  and  revenues,  which  by  pious  dedica- 
tions and  donatives  were  long  since  ascertained 
upon  them,  is  it  to  be  presumed,  in  order  of  law 
and  charity,  that  this  end  is  in  the  men  subordi- 
nate to  truth,  because  it  is  so  in  the  thing  itself, 
and  that  therefore  no  judgment,  in  prejudice 
of  these  truths,  can  be  made  from  that  observa- 
tion? 

But  if  in  any  other  way  wfe  are  ascertained  of 
the  truth  or  falsehood  of  a  proposition  respectively, 
yet  the  judgment  of  the  personal  ends  of  the  men 
cannot  ordinarily  be  certain  and  judicial,  because, 
most  commonly,  the  acts  are  private  and  the 
purposes  internal,  and  temporal  ends  may  some- 
times consist  with  truth ;  and  whether  the  pur- 
poses of  the  men  make  these  ends  principal  or 
subordinate,  no  man  can  judge ;  and  be  they  how 
they  will,  yet  they  do  not  always  prove  that  when 
they  are  conjunct  with  error,  the  error  was  caused 
by  these  purposes  and  criminal  intentions. 

But  in  questions  practical,  the  doctrine  itself. 


304  THE    SACRED   CLASSICS. 

and  the  person  too,  may  with  more  eas€;  be  re- 
proved, because  matter  of  fact  being  evident,  and 
nothing  being  so  certain  as  the  experiments  of 
human  affairs,  and  these  being  the  immediate 
consequents  of  sudi  doctrines,  are  with  some 
more  certainty  cf  observation  redargued,  than  the 
speculative ;  wnose  judgment  of  itself  more  diffi- 
cult, more  remote  from  matter  and  human  observ- 
ation, and  with  less  curiosity  and  explicitness 
declared  in  Scripture,  as  being  of  less  conse- 
quence and  concernment,  in  the  order  of  God's 
and  man's  great  end.  In  other  things,  which  end 
in  notion  and  ineffective  contemplation,  where 
neither  the  doctrine  is  malicious,  nor  the  person 
apparently  criminal,  he  is  to  be  left  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God :  and  as  there  is  no  certainty  of 
human  judicature  in  this  case,  so  it  is  to  no 
purpose  it  should  be  judged.  For  if  the  person 
may  be  innocent  with  his  error,  and  there  is  no 
rule  whereby  he  can  certainly  be  pronounced  that 
he  is  actually  criminal  (as  it  happens  in  matters 
speculative),  since  the  end  of  the  commandment 
is  love  out  of  a  *  pure  conscience  and  faith  un- 
feigned;' and  the  commandment  may  obtain  its 
end  in  a  consistence  with  this  simple  speculative 
error ;  v/hy  should  men  trouble  themselves  with 
such  opinions,  so  as  to  disturb  the  public  charity 
or  the  private  confidence?  Opinions  and  per- 
sons are  just  so  to  be  judged  as  other  matters 
and  persons  criminal;  for  no  man  can  judge  any 
thing  else;  it  must  be  a  crime,  and  it  must  be 
open,  so  as  to  take  cognizance,  and  make  true 
human  judgment  of  it.  And  this  is  all  I  am  to 
say  concerning  the  causes  of  heresies,  and  of  the 
distinguishing  rules  for  guiding  of  our  judgment 
towards  others. 


THE    LIBERTY    QF    PROPHESYING.  S05 

As  for  guiding  our  judgments,  and  the  use  of 
our  reason  in  judging  for  ourselves,  all  that  is  to 
be  said  is  reducible  to  this  one  proposition.  Since 
errors  are  then  made  sins  when  they  are  contrary 
to  charity,  or  inconsistent  with  a  good  life  and  the 
honor  of  God,  that  judgment  is  the  truest,  or,  at 
least,  that  opinion  most  innocent,  that,  first,  best 
promotes  the  reputation  of  God's  glory,  and,  se- 
condly, is  the  best  instrument  of  holy  life.  For  in 
questions  and  interpretations  of  dispute,  these  two 
analogies  are  the  best  to  make  propositions,  and 
conjectures,  and  determinations.  Diligence  and 
care  in  obtaining  the  best  guides,  and  the  most 
convenient  assistances,  prayer,  and  modesty  of 
spirit,  simplicity  of  purposes  and  intentions,  hu- 
mility and  aptness  to  learn,  and  a  peaceable  dis- 
position, are  therefore  necessary  to  finding  out 
truths,  because  they  are  parts  of  good  life,  without 
which  our  truths  will  do  us  but  little  advantage, 
and  our  errors  can  have  no  excuse ;  but  with  these 
dispositions,  as  he  is  sure  to  find  out  all  that  is 
necessary,  so  what  truth  he  inculpably  misses  of, 
he  is  sure  is  therefore  not  necessary,  because  he 
could  not  find  it  when  he  did  liis  best  and  his  most 
innocent  endeavors.  And  this  I  say  to  secure  the 
persons,  because  no  rule  can  antecedently  secure 
the  proposition  in  matters  disputable.  For  even 
in  the  proportions  and  explications  of  this  rule, 
there  is  infinite  variety  of  disputes ;  and  when  the 
dispute  is  concerning  free  will,  one  party  denies 
it,  because  he  believes  it  magnifies  the  grace  of 
God,  that  it  works  irresistibly ;  the  other  affirms, 
because  he  believes  it  engages  us  upon  greater  care 
and  piety  of  our  endeavors.  The  one  opinion 
thinks  God  reaps  the  glory  of  our  good  actions, 
the  other  thinks  it  charges  our  bad  actions  upon 
26* 


306  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

him.  So  in  the  question  of  merit,  one  part  chooses 
his  assertion,  because  he  thinks  it  encourages  us 
to  do  good  v/orks :  the  other  believes  it  makes  us 
proud,  and  therefore  he  rejects  it.  The  first 
believes  it  increases  piety,  the  second  believes  it 
increases  spiritual  presumption  and  vanity.  The 
flrst  thinks  it  magnifies  God's  justice,  the  other 
thinks  it  derogates  from  his  mercy.  Now  then, 
since  neither  this,  nor  any  ground  can  secure  a 
man  from  possibility  of  mistaking,  we  were  in- 
finitely miserable  if  it  v/ould  not  secure  us  from 
punishment,  so  long  as  we  willingly  consent  not  to 
a  crime,  and  do  our  best  endeavor  to  avoid  an 
error.  Only  by  the  way,  let  me  observe,  that  since 
there  are  such  great  difterences  of  apprehension 
concerning  the  consequents  of  an  article,  no  man 
is  to  be  charged  with  the  odious  consequences  of 
his  opinion.  Indeed,  his  doctrine  is,  but  the  per- 
son is  not,  if  he  understands  not  such  things  to  be 
consequent  to  his  doctrine :  for  if  he  did,  and  then 
avows  them,  they  are  his  direct  opinions,  and  he 
stands  as  chargeable  with  them  as  with  his  first 
propositions ;  but  if  he  disavows  them,  he  would 
certainly  rather  quit  his  own  opinion  than  avow 
such  errors  or  impieties,  which  are  pretended  to  be 
consequent  to  it ;  because  every  man  knov/s  that 
can  be  no  truth,  from  whence  falsehood  naturally 
and  immediately  does  derive ;  and  he  therefore 
believes  his  first  propositions,  because  he  believes 
it  innocent  of  such  errors  as  are  charged  upon  it, 
directly  or  consequently. 

So  that  now,  since  no  error,  neither  for  itself, 
nor  its  consequents,  is  to  be  charged  as  criminal 
upon  a  pious  person,  since  no  simple  error  is  a  sin, 
irior  does  condemn  us  before  the  throne  of  God, 
since  he  is  so  pitiful  to  our  crimes,  that  he  pardons 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  307 

many  de  toto  et  integro^  in  all  makes  abatement  for 
the  violence  of  temptation,  and  the  surprisal  and 
invasion  of  our  faculties,  and,  therefore,  much  less 
will  demand  of  us  an  account  for  our  weaknesses ; 
and  since  the  strongest  understanding  cannot 
pretend  to  such  an  immunity  and  exemption  from 
the  condition  of  men,  as  not  to  be  deceived  and 
confess  its  weakness;  it  remains,  we  inquire  what 
deportment  is  to  be  used  towards  persons  of  a 
differing  persuasion,  when  we  are  (I  do  not  say 
doubtful  of  a  proposition,  but)  convinced  tliat  he 
that  differs  from  us  is  in  error ;  for  this  was  the 
first  intention  and  the  last  end  of  this  discourse. 


308  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 


SECTION   XIII. 

Of  the  Deportment  to  be  used  towards  persons  dis- 
agreeing ^  and  the  Reasons  why  they  are  not  to  he 
punished  with  Death,  ^c. 

For  although  every  man  may  be  deceived,  yet 
some  are  right  and  may  know  it  too,  for  every  man 
that  may  err  does  not  therefore  certainly  err;  and 
if  he  errs  because  he  recedes  from  his  rule,  then  if 
he  follows  it  he  may  do  right ;  and  if  ever  any  man 
upon  just  grounds  did  change  his  opinion,  then  he 
was  in  the  right  and  was  sure  of  it  too;  and,  al- 
though confidence  is  mistaken  for  a  just  persuasion 
vnany  times,  yet  some  men  are  confident,  and  have 
reason  so  to  be.  Now  when  this  happens,  the 
question  is,  what  deportment  they  are  to  use 
towards  persons  that  disagree  from  tliem,  and  by 
consequence  are  in  error* 

1,  Then  no  Christian  is  to  be  put  to  death,  dis- 
membered, or  otherwise  directly  persecuted  for  his 
opinion,  which  does  not  teach  impiety  or  blasphe- 
my. If  it  plainly  and  apparently  brings  in  a  crime, 
and  himself  does  act  it  or  encourage  it,  then  the 
matter  of  fact  is  punishable  according  to  its  pro- 
portion or  malignity ;  as,  if  he  preaches  treason  or 
sedition,  his  opinion  is  not  his  excuse,  because  it 
brings  in  a  crime,  and  a  man  is  never  the  less 
traitor  because  he  believes  it  lawful  to  commit 
treason ;  and  a  man  is  a  murderer  if  he  kills  his 
brother  unjustly,  although  he  thinks  he  does  God 
good  service  in  it    Matters  of  fact  are  equally 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING,  309 

(judicable,  whether  the  principle  of  them  be  from 
within  or  from  without;  and  if  a  man  could  pretend 
to  innocence  in  being  seditious,  blaspliemous,  or 
perjured,  by  persuading  himself  it  is  lawful,  there 
were  as  great  a  gate  opened  to  all  iniquity  as  will 
entertain  all  the  pretences,  the  designs,  the  im- 
postures,  and  disguises  of  the  world.  And  there- 
fore God  hath  taken  order,  that  all  rules  concern- 
ing matters  of  fact  and  good  life  shall  be  so  clearly 
explicated  that,  without  the  crime  of  the  man,  he 
cannot  be  ignorant  of  all  his  practical  duty.  And 
therefore  the  apostles  and  primitive  doctors  made 
no  scruple  of  condemning  such  persons  for  heretics 
that  did  dogmatise  a  sin.  He  that  teacheth  others 
to  sin  is  worse  than  he  that  commits  the  crime, 
whether  he  be  tempted  by  his  own  interest,  or 
encouraged  by  the  other's  doctrine.  It  was  as 
bad  in  Basilides  to  teach  it  to  be  lawful  to  renounce 
faith  and  religion,  and  take  all  manner  of  oaths 
and  covenants  in  time  of  persecution,  as  if  himself 
had  done  so ;  nay,  it  is  as  much  worse,  as  the 
mischief  is  more  universal,  or  as  a  fountain  is 
greater  than  a  drop  of  water  taken  from  it.  He 
that  writes  treason  in  a  book,  or  preaches  sedition 
in  a  pulpit,  and  persuades  it  to  the  people,  is  the 
greatest  traitor  and  incendiary,  and  his  opinion 
there  is  the  fountain  of  a  sin ;  and  therefore  could 
not  be  entertained  in  his  understanding  upon 
weakness,  or  inculpable  or  innocent  prejudice :  he 
cannot,  from  Scripture  or  divine  revelation,  have 
any  pretence  to  color  that  so  fairly  as  to  seduce 
either  a  wise  or  an  honest  man.  If  it  rests  there 
and  goes  no  further,  it  is  hot  cognizable,  and  so 
scapes  that  way ;  but  if  it  be  published,  and  comes, 
a  sfylo  ad  machasram  (as  Tertullian's  phrase  is), 
"from  the  pen  to  the  sword,"  then  it  becomes 


3-10  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

matter  of  fact  in  principle  and  in  persuasion,  anti 
is  just  so  punishable  as  is  the  crime  that  it 
persuades.  Such  were  thej  of  whom  St.  Paul 
complains,*  who  brought  in  damnable  doctrines 
and  lusts.  St.  Paul's, '  I  would  they  were  even  cut 
off,'  is  just  of  them;  take  it  in  any  sense  of  rigor 
and  severity,  so  it  be  proportionable  to  the  crime, 
or  criminal  doctrine.  Such  were  those  of  whom 
God  spake  in  Dc.it.  xiii.:  'If  any  prophet  tempts 
to  idolatry,  saying,  Let  us  go  after  other  gods,  he 
shall  be  slain.'  But  these  do  not  come  into  this 
question.  But  the  proposition  is  to  be  understood 
concerning  questions  disputable  as  matter  of  opi- 
nion, which  also,  for  all  that  law  of  killing,  such 
,  false  prophets  were  permitted  with  impunity  in  the 
synagogue,  as  appears  beyond  exception  in  the 
great  divisions  and  disputes  between  the  Pharisees 
and  the  Sadducees.  I  deny  not,  but  certain  and 
known  idolatry,  or  any  other  sort  of  practical  im- 
piety, with  its  principiant  doctrine,  may  be  punished 
corporally,  because  it  is  no  other  but  matter  of  fact : 
but  no  matter  of  mere  opinion,  no  errors  that  of 
themselves  are  not  sins,  are  to  be  persecuted,  or 
punished  by  death,  or  corporal  inflictions.  This 
is  now  to  be  proved. 

2.  All  the  former  discourse  is  sufficient  argu  ^ 
ment  how  easy  it  is  for  us,  in  such  matters,  to  be 
deceived.  So  long  as  Christian  religion  was  a 
simple  profession  of  the  articles  of  belief,  and  a 
hearty  prosecution  of  the  rules  of  good  life,  the 
fewness  of  the  articles  and  the  clearness  of  the 
rule  was  cause  of  the  seldom  prevarication.  But 
when  divinity  is  swelled  up  to  so  great  a  body, 
when  the  several  questions,  which  the  peevishness 
and  wantonness  of  sixteen  ages  have  commenced, 

*  Gal.  V. 


THE'  LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  311 

are  concentered  into  one,  and  from  ail  these  ques- 
tions sometliing  is  drawn  into  the  body  of  theology 
till  it  hath  ascended  up  to  the  greatness  of  a  moun- 
tain, and  the  sum  of  divinity  collected  by  Aquinas 
makes  a  volume  as  great  as  was  that  of  Livy, 
mocked  at  in  the  epigram, 

"  Q.uem  mea  vix  totum  bibliotheca  capit, — "* 

it  is  impossible  for  any  industry  to  consider  so 
many  particulars,  in  the  infinite  numbers  of  ques- 
tions as  are  necessary  to  be  considered  before  we 
can  with  certainty  determine  any.  And  after  all 
the  considerations  which  we  can  have  in  a  whole 
age,  we  are  not  sure  not  to  be  deceived.  The 
obscurity  of  some  questions,  the  nicety  of  some 
articles,  the  intricacy  of  some  revelations,  the 
variety  of  human  understandings,  the  windings  of 
logic,  the  tricks  of  adversaries,  the  subtlety  of 
sophisters,  the  engagement  of  education,  personal 
affections,  the  portentous  number  of  writers,  the 
infinity  of  authorities,  the  vastness  of  some  argu- 
ments, as  consisting  in  enumeration  of  many  par- 
ticulars, the  uncertainty  of  others,  the  several 
degrees  of  probability,  the  difficulties  of  Scripture, 
the  invalidity  of  probation  of  tradition,  the  oppo- 
sition of  ail  exterior  arguments  to  each  other,  and 
their  open  contestation,  the  public  violence  done 
to  authors  and  records,  the  private  arts  and 
supplantings,  the  falsifyings,  the  indefatigable  in- 
dustry of  some  men  to  abuse  all  understandings 
and  all  persuasions  into  their  own  opinions,— 
these,  and  thousands  more,  even  all  the  difficulty 
of  things,  and  all  the  weaknesses  of  man,  and  ail 
the  arts  of  the  devil,  have  made  it  impossible  for 
any  man,  in  so  great  variety  of  matter,  not  to  be 
*  "A  work  which  shelves  like  mine  can  scarce  contain.'* 


51i2  THE    SAC^RED    CLASSICS. 

ileceived.  No  man  pretends  to  it  but  the  pope, 
and  no  man  Is  more  deceived  than  lie  is  in  that 
very  particular. 

3.  From  hence  proceeds  a  danger  which  is  con- 
sequent to  this  proceeding ;  for  if  we,  who  are  so 
apt  to  be  deceived  and  so  insecure  in  our  resolu- 
tion of  questions  disputable,  should  persecute  a 
disagreeing  person,  we  are  not  sure  we  do  not 
fight  against  God ;  for  if  his  proposition  be  true  and 
persecuted,  then,  because  all  truth  derives  from 
God,  this  proceeding  is  against  God ;  and  therefore 
this  is  not  to  be  done,  upon  Gamaliel's  ground, 
lest  peradventure  we  be  found  to  fight  against 
God,  of  which  because  we  can  have  no  security 
(at  least)  in  this  case,  we  have  all  the  gvilt  of  a 
doubtful  or  an  uncertain  conscience.  For  if  there  be 
no  security  in  the  thing,  as  I  have  largely  proved, 
the  conscience,  in  such  cases,  is  as  uncertain  as 
the  question  is  :  and  if  it  be  not  doubtful  where  it 
is  uncertain,  it  is  because  the  man  is  not  wise,  but 
as  confident  as  ignorant ;  tlie  first  without  reason, 
and  the  second  without  excuse.  And  it  is  very 
disproportionable  for  a  man  to  persecute  another 
certainly,  for  a  proposition  that,  if  he  were  wise,  he 
would  know  is  not  certain,  at  least  the  other  per- 
son may  innocently  be  uncertain  of  it.  If  he  be 
killed  he  is  certainly  killed ;  but  if  he  be  called 
heretic  it  is  not  so  certain  that  he  is  an  heretic.  It 
were  good,  therefore,  that  proceedings  were  ac- 
cording to  evidence,  and  the  rivers  not  swell  over 
the  banks,  nor  a  certain  definitive  sentence  of 
death  passed  upon  such  persuasions  which  cannot 
•certainly  be  defined.  And  this  argument  is  of  so 
much  the  more  force  because  we  see  that  the 
greatest  persecutions  that  ever  have  been  were 
against  truth,  even  against  Christianity  itself;  and 


THE  LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  313 

it  was  a  prediction  of  our  blessed  Savior,  that 
persecution  should  be  the  lot  of  true  believers  : 
and  if  we  compute  the  experience  of  suffering 
Christendom,  and  the  prediction,  that  truth  should 
suffer,  with  those  few  instances  of  suffering  he- 
retics, it  is  odds  but  persecution  is  on  the  wrong 
side,  and  that  it  is  error  and  heresy  that  is  cruel 
and  tyrannical,  especially  since  the  truth  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  of  his  religion,  arp  so  meek,  so  chari- 
table, and  so  merciful.  And  we  may,  in  this  case, 
exactly  use  the  words  of  St.  Paul  :  '  But  as  then, 
he  that  was  born  after  the  liesh,  persecuted  him 
that  was  born  after  the  spirit ;  even  so  it  is  now ;' 
and  so  it  ever  will  be  till  Christ's  second  coming. 
4.  Whoever  persecutes  a  disagreeing  person, 
arms  all  the  world  against  himself^  *  and  all  pious 
people  of  his  own  persuasion,  when  the  scales  of 
authority  returns  to  his  adversary  and  attest  his 
contradictory:  and  then  what  can  he  urge  for 
mercy  for  himself,  or  his  party,  that  showeth  none 
to  others?  If  he  says,  that  he  is  to  be  spared 
because  he  believes  true,  but  the  other  was  justly, 
persecuted  because  he  was  in  error,  he  is  ridicu- 
lous; for  he  is  as  confidently  believed  |;o  be  a 
heretic  as  he  believes  his  adversaiy  such  ;  and 
whether  he  be  or  no,  being  the  thing  in  question, 
of  this  he  is  not  to  be  his  own  judge  :  but  he  that 
hath  authority  on  his  side  will  be  sure  to  judge 
against  him.  So  that  what  either  side  can  indif- 
ferently make  use  of,  it  is  good  that  neither  Vv'ould, 
because  neither  side  can,  with  reason  sufficient, 
do  it  in  prejudice  of  the  other.     If  a  man  will 

*  "  Quo  comperto  iili  in  ncstram  perniciem  licentiore  auda- 
tia  grassabuntur." — St.  Aug.  Epist.  ad  Donat.  Procons.  et 
Contr.  ep  Fund.  "  Ita  nunc  debeo  sustinere  et  tanta  patieutia 
vobiscum  agere  quanta  mecum  egerunt  proximi  mei  cun;  in 
vestro  dogmate  rabiosus  ac  coecu.s  errarem." 
07 


314  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

saj  that  every  man  must  take  his  adventure,  and 
if  it  happens  authority  to  be  with  him,  he  will 
persecute  his  adversaries;  and  if  it  turns  against 
him  he  will  bear  it  as  well  as  he  can,  and  hope 
for  a  reward  of  martyrdom  and  innocent  suffering ; 
besides  that  this  is  so  equal  to  be  said  of  all 
sides;  besides  that  this  is  a  way  to  make  an 
eternal  disunion  of  hearts  and  charities,  and  that 
it  will  make  Christendom  nothing  but  a  shambles, 
and  a  perpetual  butchery ;  and  as  fast  as  men's 
wits  grow  wanton,  or  confident,  or  proud,  or 
abused,  so  often  there  v/ill  be  new  executions  and 
massacres  :■— besides  all  this,  it  is  most  unreason- 
able and  unjust,  as  being  contrarient  to  those  laws 
of  justice  and  charity,  whereby  we  are  bound  with 
greater  zeal  to  spare  and  preserve  an  innocent 
than  to  condemn  a  guilty  person ;  and  there  is  less 
malice  and  iniquity  in  sparing  the  guilty  than  in 
condemning  the  good;  because  it  is  in  the  power 
of  men  to  remit  a  guilty  person  to  divine  judica- 
ture, and  for  divers  causes  not  to  use  severity,  but 
in  no  case  is  it  lawful,  neither  hath  God  at  all  given 
to  man  a  power  as  to  condemn  such  persons,  as 
cannot  be  proved  other  than  pious  and  innocent; 
and  therefore  it  is  better  if  it  should  so  happen,  that 
we  should  spare  the  innocent  person  and  one  that 
is  actually  deceived,  than  that,  upon  the  turn  of  the 
wheel,  the  true  believers  should  be  destroyed. 

And  this  very  reason  he  that  had  authority  suf- 
ficient and  absolute  to  make  laws,  was  pleased  to 
urge  as  a  reasonable  inducement  for  the  establish- 
ing of  that  law  which  he  made  for  the  indemnity 
of  erring  persons.  It  was  in  the  parable  of  the 
tares  mingled  with  the  o-ood  seed,  in  the  Lord's 
field;  the  good  seed  (Christ  himself  being  the 
interpreter)  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom,  the 


THE  LIBERTY  'oF    PROPHESYING.  315 

tares  are  the  children  of  the  wicked  one ;  upon 
this  comes  the  precept,  *  Gather  not  the  tares  by 
themselves,  but  let  them  both  grow  together  till  the 
harvest,'  that  is,  till  the  day  of  judgment.  This 
parable  hath  been  tortured  infinitely  to  make  it 
confess  its  meaning,  but  we  shall  soon  despatch  it. 
All  the  difficulty  and  variety  of  exposition  is 
reducible  to  these  two  questions :  what  is  meant 
by  gathfcr  not,  and  what  by  tares  ?  That  is,  what 
kind  of  sword  is  forbidden,  and  what  kind  of 
persons  are  to  be  tolerated  ?  The  former  is  clear 
for  the  spiritual  sword  is  not  forbidden  to  be  used 
to  any  sort  of  criminals,  for  that  would  destroy 
the  power  of  excommunication :  the  prohibition 
therefore  lies  against  the  use  of  the  temporal 
sword  in  cutting  oiF  some  persons ;  who  they  are 
is  the  next  difficulty.  But  by  tares,  or  the  chil- 
dren of  the  wicked  one,  are  meant,  either  persons 
of  ill  lives,  wicked  persons  only  in  re  practica 
(in  conduct) ;  or  else  another  kind  of  evil  persons, 
men  criminal  or  faulty  in  re  inieUectuali  (in  un- 
derstanding). One  or  other  of  these  two  must  be 
meant — a  third  I  know  not.  But  the  former 
cannot  be  meant,  because  it  would  destroy  all 
bodies  politic,  which  cannot  consist  without  laws, 
nor  laws  without  a  compulsory  and  a  power  of  the 
sword;  therefore,  if  criminals  were  to  be  let 
alone  till  the  day  of  judgment,  bodies  politic  must 
stand  or  fall  ad  arbitrium  impiorum,  *'  according 
to  the  pleasure  of  evil  men ;"  and  nothing  good 
could  be  protected,  not  innocence  itself;  nothing 
could  be  secured  but  violence  and  tyranny.  It 
follows  then,  that  since  a  kind  of  persons  which 
are  indeed  faulty  are  to  be  tolerated,  it  must  be 
meant  of  persons  faulty  in  another  kind,  in  which 
the  Gospel  had  not,  in  other  places,  clearly  esta- 


316  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

blished  a*  power  externally  compulsory ;  and 
therefore,  since  in  all  actions  practically  criminal 
a  power  of  the  sword  is  permitted,  here,  where  it 
is  denied,  must  mean  a  crime  of  another  kind, 
and  by  consequence,  errors  intellectual,  commonly 
called  heresy. 

And,  after  all  this,  the  reason  there  given  con- 
firms this  interpretation,*  for  therefore  it  is  for- 
bidden to  cut  oflf  these  tares,  lest  we  also  pull  up 
the  wheat  with  them,  which  is  the  sum  of  these 
two  last  arguments.  For,  because  heresy  is  of 
so  nice  consideration  and  difficult  sentence,  in 
thinking  to  root  up  heresies  we  may,  by  our 
mistakes,!  destroy  true  doctrine :  which  although 
it  be  possible  to  be  done,  in  all  cases  of  practical 
question,  by  mistake,  yet  because  external  actions 
are  more  discernible  than  inward  speculations  and 
opinions,  innocent  persons  are  not  so  easily  mis- 
taken for  the  guilty,  in  actions  criminal  as  in 
matters  of  inward  persuasion.  And  upon  that 
very  reason  St.  Martin  was  zealous  to  have  pro- 
cured a  revocation  of  a  commission  granted  to 
several  tribunes,  to  make  inquiry  in  Spain  for 
sects  and  opinions ;  for  under  color  of  rooting  out 
the  Priscillianists  there  was  much  mischief  done, 
and  more  likely  to  happen  to  the  orthodox :  for  it 
happened  then, as  oftentimes  since,  "a heretic  was 
sometimes  discovered  rather  by  his  pallid  coun- 
tenance and  his  dress  than  by  his  creed."i  They 
were  no  good  inquisitors  of  heretical  pravity,  so 

•^  Vide  St.  Chrysost.  Horn,  xlvii.  in  cap.  13,  Matt,  et  St. 
August.  Quaest.  in  cap.  13,  Matt.  St.  Cyprian.  Ep.  lib.  iii. 
Ep.  1.  Theophyl.  in  13,  Matt. 

t  S.  Hieron.  in  cap.  13,  Matt,  ait,  "Pefhanc  parabolam 
significari,  ne  in  rebus  dubiis  prasceps  fiat  judicium." 

I  "  Pallore  potius  et  veste  quam  fide  hsereticus  dijudicari 
sobat  aiiquando  per  tribunes  Maxiini." 


THE   LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  317 

Sulpitius  witnesses.  But,  secondly,  the  reason 
says,  that  therefore  these  persons  are  so  to  be 
permitted  as  not  to  be  persecuted,  lest,  when  a 
revolution  of  human  affaii's  sets  contrary  opinions 
in  the  throne  or  chair,  they  who  were  persecuted 
before  should  now  themselves  become  persecutors 
of  others,  and  so,  at  one  time  or  other,  before  or 
after,  the  wheat  be  rooted  up,  and  the  truth  be 
persecuted.  But  as  these  reasons  confirm  the  law 
and  this  sense  of  it,  so,  abstracting  from  the  law, 
it  is  of  itself  concluding  by  an  argument  ab  in- 
commodo  (from  inconvenience),  and  that  founded 
upon  the  principles  of  justice  and  right  reason,  as 
I  formerly  alleged. 

5.  We  are  not  only  uncertain  of  finding  out 
truths  in  matters  disputable,  but  we  are  certain 
that  the  best  and  ablest  doctors  of  Christendom* 
have  been  actually  deceived  in  matters  of  great 
concernment;  which  thing  is  evident  in  all  those 
instances  of  persons  from  whose  doctrines  all  sorts 
of  Christians  respectively  take  liberty  to  dissent. 
The  errors  of  Papias,  Irenseus,  Lactantius,  Justin 
Martyr,  in  the  millenary  opinion  ;  of  St.  Cyprian, 
Firmilian,  the  Asian  and  African  fathers,  in  the 
question  of  rebaptization ;  St.  Austin,  in  his  decre- 
tory and  uncharitable  sentence  against  the  unbap- 
tized  children  of  Christian  parents ;  the  Roman  or 
the  Greek  doctors,  in  the  question  of  the  proces- 
sion of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  the  matter  of 
images,  are  examples  beyond  exception.     "  The 

*  "Illi  in  vos  saeviant,  qui  nesciunt  cum  quo  labore  verum 
invenialur,  et  quam  difficile  caveantur  en'ores.  Illi  in  vos 
sseviant,  qui  nesciunt  quam  rarum  et  arduum  sit  carnalia  phan- 
tasmata  pire  mentis  serenitate  superare.  Illi  in  vos  Sceviant, 
qui  nesciunt  quibus  et  suspiriis  et  gemitibus  fiat  ut  ex  quan- 
tulacunque  parte  possit  intelligi  Deus.  Postremo  illi  in  vos 
saeviant,  qui  nullo  tali  errore  decepti  sunt,  quali  vos  deceptoa 
vident." — St.  August.  Contr.  En.  Fund. 
27* 


318  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

errors  that  attacli  to  the  minds  of  men  are  number- 
less."* Now,  if  these  great  personages  had  been 
persecuted  or  destroyed  for  their  opinions,  who 
should  have  answered  the  invaluable  loss  the 
church  of  God  should  have  sustained  in  missiiuo- 
so  excellent,  so  exemplary,  and  so  great  lights  r 
But,  then,  if  these  persons  erred,  and  by  conse- 
quence might  have  been  destroyed,  what  should 
have  become  of  others  whose  understanding  was 
lower,  and  their  security  less,  their  errors  more, 
and  their  danger  greater  ?  At  this  rate,  all  men 
should  have  passed  through  the  lire;  for  who  can 
escape  when  St.  Cyprian  and  St.  Austin  cannot  r 
Now,  to  say  these  persons  were  not  to  be  perse- 
cuted because,  although  they  had  errors,  yet  none 
condemned  by  the  cliurch  at  that  time  or  before, 
is  to  say  nothing  to  the  purpose,  nor  nothing  that 
is  trde.  Not  true,  because  St.  Cyprian's  error  was 
condemned  by  pope  Stephen,  which,  in  the  present 
sense  of  the  prevailing  party  in  the  church  of 
Kome,  is  to  be  condemned  by  the  church.  Not  to 
the  purpose,  because  it  is  nothing  else  but  to  say 
that  the  church  did  tolerate  their  errors ;  for  since 
those  opinions  Vv^ere  open  and  manifest  to  the  world, 
that  the  church  did  not  condemn  them,  it  was  eithei 
because  those  opinions  were  by  the  church  not 
thought  to  be  errors,  or  if  they  were,  yet  she  thought 
tit  to  tolerate  the  error  and  the  erring  person  : 
And  if  she  would  do  so  still,  it  would  in  most 
cases  be  better  than  now  it  is.  And  yet,  if  the 
church  had  condemned  them,  it  had  not  altered  the 
case  as  to  this  question ;  for  either  the  persons,  upon 
the  condemnation  of  their  error,  should  have  been 
persecuted  or  not.     If  not,  why  shall  they,  now, 

*  "Au<^i  J"  ^ci'j^puTroov  <^^<riv  ^ AfxTr'K'Xiiic.i  'otV£t/3t'S"^^TC/  Ki'wtcvrrt/. 


THE  LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  319 

against  the  instance  and  precedent  of  those  ages 
who  were  confessedly  wise  and  pious,  and  whose 
practices  are  often  made  to  us  arguments  to  follow  ? 
If  yea,  and  that  they  had  been  persecuted,  it  is 
the  thing  which  this  argument  condemns,  and  the 
loss  of  the  churcli  had  been  invaluable  in  the  losing 
or  the  provocation  and  temptation  of  such  rare  per- 
sonages ;  and  tiie  example  and  the  rule  of  so  ill 
consequence,  that  all  persons  might,  upon  the 
same  ground,  have  suflfered ;  and  though  some  had 
escaped,  yet  no  man  could  have  any  more  security 
from  punishment  than  from  error. 

6.  Either  the  disagreeing  person  is  in  error  or 
not,  but  a  true  believer;  in  either  of  the  cases,  to 
persecute  him  is  extremely  imprudent.  For  if  he 
be  a  true  believer,  then  it  is  a  clear  case  that  we  do 
open  violence  to  God,  and  his  servants,  and  his 
truth.  If  he  be  in  error,  what  greater  folly  and 
stupidity  than  to  give  to  error  the  glory  of  mar- 
tyrdom, and  tlie  advantages  which  are  accidentally 
consequent  to  a  persecution  ?  For  as  it  was  true 
of  the  martyrs,  Quoiies  moriinur  toiies  nascwiur,-^ 
and  the  increase  of  their  trouble  was  the  increase 
of  their  confidence  and  tlie  establishment  of  their 
persuasions,  so  it  is  in  all  false  opinions  ;  for  that 
an  opinion  is  true  or  false,  is  extrinsical  or  acci- 
dental to  the  consequents  and  advantages  it  gets 
by  being  afflicted.  And  there  is  a  popular  pity 
that  follows  all  persons  in  misery,  and  that  com- 
passion breeds  likeness  of  aftections,  and  that  very 
often  produces  likeness  of  persuasion ;  and  so  mucii 
the  rather,  because  there  arises  a  jealousy  and 
pregnant  suspicion  that  they  v/ho  persecute  an 
opinion  are  destitute  of  sufficient  arguments  to 

*  ♦•'As  often  as  we  die,  so  olten  do  we  begin  to  live."' 


S20  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

confute  it,  and  that  the  hangman  is  the  best  dis- 
putant.    For  if  those  arguments  which  they  have 
for  their  own  doctrine  were  a  sufficient  ground  of 
confidence  and  persuasion,  men  would  be  more 
willing  to  use  those  means  which  are  better  com- 
pliances with  human  understanding,  which  more 
naturally  do  satisfy  it,  which  are  more  human  and 
Christian  than  that  way  which  satisfies  none,  which 
destroys  many,  which  provokes  more,  which  makes 
all  men  jealous.    To  which  add,  that  those  who  die 
for  their  opinion  leave  in  all  men  great  arguments 
of  the  heartiness  of  their  belief,  of  the  confidence  of 
their  persuasion,  of  the  piety  and  innocency  of 
their  persons,  of  the  purity  of  their  intention,  and 
simplicity  of  purposes ;  that  they  are  persons  to- 
tally disinterested  and  separate  from  design.    For 
no  interest  can  be  so  great  as  to  be  put  in  balance 
against  a  man's  life  and  his  soul,  and  he  does  very 
imprudently  serve  his  ends  who  seeingly  and  fore- 
knowingly  loses  his  life  in  the  prosecution  of  them. 
Just  as  if  Titius  should  offer  to  die  for  Sempronius, 
upon  condition  he  might   receive  twenty  talents 
when  he  had  done  his  work.     It  is  certainly  an  ar- 
gument of  a  great  love,  and  a  great  confidence, 
and  a  great  sincerity,  and  a  great  hope,  when  a 
man  lays  down  his  life  in  attestation  of  a  proposi- 
tion.    "^  Greater  love  than  this  hath  no  man,  than 
to  lay  down  his  life,"  saith  our  blessed  Savior. 
And  although  laying  of  a  wager  is  an  argument  of 
confidence  more   than   truth,  yet  laying  such  a 
wager,  staking  of  a  man's  soul,  and  pawning  his 
life,  gives  a  hearty  testimony  that  the  person  is 
honest,  confident,  resigned,  charitable,  and  noble. 
And  I  know  not  whether  truth  can  do  a  person  or 
a  cause  more  advantages  than  these  can  do  to  an 
error.     And  therefore,  besides  the  impiety,  there 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  321 

is  great  imprudence  in  canonizing  a  heretic  and 
consecrating  an  error  by  such  means,  which  were 
better  preserved  as  encouragements  of  truth  and 
comforts  to  real  and  true  martyrs.  And  it  is  not 
amiss  to  observe,  that  this  very  advantage  was 
taken  by  heretics,  v/ho  were  ready  to  show  and 
boast  their  catalogues  of  martyrs :  in  particular, 
the  Circumcellians  did  so^and  the  Donatists;  and 
yet  the  first  were  heretics,  the  second  schismatics. 
And  it  was  remarkable  in  the  scholars  of  Priscil- 
iian,  who,  as  they  had  their  master  in  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  saint  while  he  was  living,  so  when  he  was 
dead  they  had  him  in  veneration  as  a  martyr ; 
they  with  reverence  and  devotion  carried  his,  and 
the  bodies  of  his  slain  companions,  to  an  honorable 
sepulchre,  and  counted  it  religion  to  swear  by  the 
name  of  Priscillian.  So  that  the  extinffuishing  of 
the  person  gives  life  and  credit  to  his  doctrine,  and 
when  he  is  dead  he  yet  speaks  more  effectually. 

7".  It  is  unnatural  and  unreasonable  to  persecute 
disagreeing  opinions.  Unnatural ;  for  understand- 
ing— being  a  thing  wholly  spiritual — cannot  be 
restrained,  and  therefore  neither  punished  by  cor 
poral  afflictions.  It  is  in  cdiena  republican  a  matter 
of  another  world :  you  may  as  well  cure  the  colic 
by  brushing  a  man's  clothes,  or  fill  a  man's  belly 
with  a  syllogism :  these  things  do  not  communicate 
in  matter,  and  therefore  neither  in  action  nor  pas- 
sion; and  since  all  punishments,  in  a  prudent 
government,  punish  the  offender  to  prevent  a 
future  crime,  and  so  it  proves  more  medicinal 
than  vindictive,  the  punitive  act  being  in  order  to 
the  cure  and  prevention ;  and  since  no  punishment 
of  the  body  can  cure  a  disease  in  the  soul,  it  is 
disproportionable  in  nature ;  and  in  all  civil  govern- 
ment, to  punish  v/here  tlie  punishment  can  do  no 


322  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

good,  it  may  be  an  act  of  tyranny,  but  never  of 
justice.  For  is  an  opinion  ever  the  more  true  or 
false  for  being  persecuted  ?  Some  men  have  be- 
lieved it  the  moi'e,  as  being  provoked  into  a  confi- 
dence and  vexed  into  a  resolution;  but  the  thing 
itself  is  not  the  truer ;  and  though  the  hangman 
may  confute  a  man  with  an  inexplicable  dilemma, 
yet  not  convince  His  understanding;  for  such  pre- 
mises can  infer  no  conclusion  but  that  of  a  man's 
life;  and  a  wolf  may  as  v/ell  give  laws  to  the 
understanding  as  he  whose  dictates  are  only  pro- 
pounded in  violence  and  writ  in  blood.  And  a  dog 
is  as  capable  of  a  law  as  a  man,  if  there  be  no 
choice  in  his  obedience,  nor  discourse  in  his  choice, 
nor  reason  to  satisfy  his  discourse.  And  as  it  is 
unnatural,  so  it  is  unreasonable  that  Sem.pronius 
should  force  Caius  to  be  of  his  opinion,  because 
Sempronius  is  consul  this  year,  and  commands  the 
Lictors ;  as  if  he  that  can  kill  a  man  cannot  but 
be  infallible:  and  if  he  be  not,  why  should  I  do 
violence  to  my  conscience  because  he  can  do  vio- 
lence to  my  person  ? 

8.  Force  in  matters  of  opinion  can  do  no  good, 
but  is  very  apt  to  do  hurt;  for  no  man  can  change 
his  opinion  when  he  v»'ill,  or  be  satisfied  in  his 
reason  that  his  opinion  is  false  because  discounte- 
nanced. If  a  man  could  change  his  opinion  when 
he  lists,  he  might  cure  many  inconveniences  of 
his  life :  all  his  fears  and  his  sorrows  would  soon 
disband,  if  he  would  but  alter  his  opinion,  vvdiereby 
he  is  persuaded  that  such  an  accident  that  aiiiicts 
him  is  an  evil,  and  such  an  object  formidable ;  let 
him  but  believe  himself  impregnable,  or  that  he 
receives  a  benefit  when  he  is  plundered,  disgraced, 
imprisoned,  condemned,  and  afflicted,  neither  his 
sleeps  need  to   be  disturbed,   nor  his  quietness 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  btii) 

discomposed.  But  if  a  man  cannot  change  his 
opinion  wlien  he  lists,  nor  ever  does  heartily  or 
resolutely  but  when  he  cannot  do  otherwise,  then 
to  use  force  may  make  him  an  hypocrite  but  never 
to  be  a  right  believer;  and  so,  instead  of  erecting 
a  trophy  to  God  and  true  religion,  we  build  a 
monument  for  the  devil.  Infinite  examples  are 
recorded  in  church  story  to  this  very  purpose ;  but 
Socrates  instances  in  one  for  all ;  for  when  Eleu- 
sius,  bishop  of  Cyzicum,  was  threatened  by  the 
emperor  Valens  with  banishment  and  confiscation 
if  he  did  not  subscribe  to  tlie  decree  of  Ariminum, 
at  last  he  yielded  to  the  Arian  opinion,  and  pre- 
sently fell  into  great  torment  of  conscience,  openly 
at  Cyzicum  recanted  the  error,  asked  God  and 
the  church  forgiveness,  and  complained  of  the 
emperor's  injustice,  and  that  v/as  all  the  good  the 
Arian  party  got  by  offering  violence  to  his  con- 
science. Ai^d  so  many  families  in  Spain,  which 
are,  as  they  call  them,  new  Christians,  and  of  a 
suspected  faiili,  into  which  they  were  forced  by 
the  tyranny  of  the  Inquisition,  and  yet  are  secret 
Moors,  is  evidence  enough  of  the  inconvenience 
of  preaching  a  doctrine  in  in  ore  glidii  cruentandu 
at  the  point  of  the  sword.  For  it  either  punishes 
a  man  for  keeping  a  good  conscience  or  forces 
him  into  a  bad;  it  either  punishes  sincerity  or 
persuades  hypocrisy;  it  persecutes  a  truth  or 
drives  into  error;  and  it  teaches  a  man  to  dis- 
semble and  to  be  safe,  but  never  to  be  honest. 

9.  It  is  one  of  the  glories  of  Christian  religion, 
that  it  was  so  pious,  excellent,  miraculous,  and 
persuasive,  that  it  came  in  upon  its  own  piety  and 
wisdom,  with  no  other  force  but  a  torrent  of  argu- 
ments, and  demonstration  of  the  Spirit ;  a  mighty 
rushing  wind  to  beat  down  all  strong  holds,  and 


324  rHE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

every  high  thought  and  imagination ;  but  towards 
the  persons  of  men  it  was  always  full  of  meekness 
and  charity,  compliance  and  toleration,  conde- 
scension and  bearing  with  one  another, "  restoring 
persons  overtaken  with  an  error,  in  the  spirit  of 
meekness,  considering  lest  we  also  be  tempted." 
The  consideration  is  as  prudent  and  the  proposition 
as  just  as  the  precept  is  charitable  and  the  prece- 
dent was  pious  and  holy.  Now,  things  are  best  con- 
served with  that  which  gives  it  the  first  being,  and 
which  is  agreeable  to  its  temper  and  constitution. 
That  precept  which  it  chieHy  preaches,  in  order 
to  all  the  blessedness  in  the  world,  that  is,  of 
meekness,  mercy,  and  charity,  should  also  preserve 
itself,  and  promote  its  own  interest.  For,  indeed, 
nothing  v/111  do  it  so  well;  nothing  doth  so  excel- 
lently insinuate  itself  into  the  understandings  and 
affections  of  men,  as  when  the  actions  and  per- 
suasions of  a  sect,  and  every  part  and  principle 
and  promotion  are  univocal.  And  it  v/ould  be  a 
mighty  disparagement  to  so  glorious  an  institution, 
tjmt  in  its  principle  it  should  be  merciful  and 
humane,  and  in  the  promotion  and  propagation  ot 
it  so  inhuman ;  and  it  would  be  improbable  and 
unreasonable  that  the  sword  should  be  used  in  the 
persuasion  of  one  proposition,  and  yet,  in  the 
persuasion  of  the  whole  religion,  nothing  like  it. 
To  do  so  may  serve  the  end  of  a  temporal  prince, 
but  never  promote  the  honor  of  Christ's  kingdom; 
it  may  secure  a  design  of  Spain,  but  will  very 
much  deserve  Christendom,  to  offer  to  support  it 
by  that  which  good  men  believe  to  be  a  distinctive 
cognizance  of  the  Mahometan  religion  from  the 
excellency  and  piety  of  Christianity,  whose  sense 
and  spirit  is  described  in  tliose  excellent  words  of 
St.  Paul,  2  Tim.  ii.  24  :  '  The  servant  of  the  Lord 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  S25 

must  not  strive,  but  be  gentle  unto  all  men,  in 
meekness  instructing  those  that  oppose  themselves, 
if  God  peradventure  will  give  them  repentance  to 
the  acknowledging  the  truth.'  They  that  oppose 
themselves  must  not  be  stricken  by  any  of  God's 
servants ;  and,  if  yet  any  man  will  smite  these 
who  are  his  opposites  in  opinion,  he  will  get 
nothing  by  that ;  he  must  quit  the  title  of  being  a 
servant  of  God  for  his  pains.  And  I  think  a  dis- 
tinction of  persons  secular  and  ecclesiastical  will 
do  no  advantage  for  an  escape ;  because  even  the 
secular  power,  if  it  be  Christian  and  a  servant  of 
God,  must  not  be  *  a  striker ;  the  servant  of  the 
Lord  must  not  strive.'  I  mean  in  those  cases 
where  meekness  of  instruction  is  the  remedy,  or 
if  the  case  be  irremediable,  abscission  by  censures 
is  the  penalty. 

10.  And  if  yet  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  it 
were  neither  unjust  nor  unreasonable,  yet  there  is 
nothing  under  God  Almighty  that  hath  power  over 
the  soul  of  man  so  as  to  command  a  persuasion, 
or  to  judge  a  disagreeing.  Human  positive  laws 
direct  all  external  acts  in  order  to  several  ends, 
and  the  judges  take  cognizance  accordingly;  but 
no  man  can  command  the  vvdll,  or  punish  him  that 
obeys  the  law  against  his  will :  for,  because  its 
end  is  served  in  external  obedience,  it  neither 
looks  after  more,  neither  can  it  be  served  by  more, 
nor  take  notice  of  any  more.  And  yet,  possibly, 
the  understanding  is  less  subject  to  human  power 
than  the  will,  for  the  human  power  hath  a  command 
over  external  acts,  which  naturally  and  regularly 
flow  from  the  will ;  and  at  most,  suppose  a  direct 
act  of  will,  but  always  either  a  direct  or  indirect 
volition,  primary  or  accidental;  but  the  under- 
standing is  a  natural  faculty,  subject  to  no  com- 
28 


326  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

mand  but  where  the  command  is  itself  a  reason 
fit  to  satisfy  and  persuade  it.     And  therefore  God 
commanding  us  to  believe  such  revelations,  per- 
suades  and   satisfies   the   understanding  by  his 
commanding  and  revealing  i  for  there  is  no  greater 
probation  in  the  world  that  a  proposition  is  true, 
than  because  God  hath  commanded  us  to  believe 
it.     But  because  no  man's  command,  is  a  satisfac- 
tion to  the  understanding,  or  a  verification  of  the 
proposition,  therefore  the  understanding  is  not 
subject  to  human  autliority.     They  may  persuade, 
but  not  enjoin  where  God  hath  not;  and  where 
God  hath,  if  it  appears  so  to  him,  he  is  an  infidel 
if  he  does  not  believe  it.     And,  if  all  men  have 
no  other  efficacy  or  authority  on  the  understanding 
but  by  persuasion,  proposal,  and  entreaty,  then  a 
man   is   bound   to  assent   but   according  to  the 
operation  of  the  argument,  and  the  energy  of  per- 
suasion; neither,  indeed,  can  he,  though  he  would 
never  so  fain ;  and  he  that,  out  of  fear  and  too 
much  compliance  and  desire  to  be  safe,  shall  desire 
to  bring  his  understanding  with  some  luxation  to 
the  belief  of  human  dictates  and  authorities,  may 
as  often  miss  of  the  truth  as  hit  it,  but  is  sure 
always  to  lose  the  comfort  of  truth,  because  he 
believes  it  upon  indirect,  insufficient,  and  incom- 
petent arguments ;  and  as  his  desire  it  should  be 
so  is  his  best  argument  that  it  is  so,  so  the  pleasing 
of  men  is  his  best  reward,  and  his  not  being  con- 
demned and  contradicted  all  the  possession  of  a 
truth. 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  327" 


SECTION  XIV. 

Cf  the  Practice  of  Christian  Churches  towards 
Persons  disagreeing,  and  when  Persecution  first 
came  in. 

And  thus  this  truth  hath  been  practiced  in  all 
times  of  christian  religion,  when  there  were  no 
collateral  desioiis  on  foot,  nor  interests  to  be 
served,  nor  passions  to  be  satisfied.  In  St.  Paul's 
time,  though  the  censure  of  heresy  were  not  so 
loose  and  forward  as  afterwards  ;  and  all  that  were 
called  heretics  were  clearly  such,  and  highly  crimi- 
nal ;  j^t  as  their  crime  was,  so  was  tlieir  censure, 
tliat  is,  spiritual.  They  were  first  admonished, 
once  at  least,  for  so  Irenaeus,*  TertulliaUjt  Cj- 
prian,t  Ambrose,§  and  Jerome,|l  read  that  place  of 
Titus  iii.  But  since  that  time  all  men,  and  at  that 
time  some  read  it,  "after  a  second  admonition" 
reject  a  heretic.  Rejection  from  the  communion 
of  saints,  after  two  warnings,  that  is  the  penalty. 
St.  John  expresses  it  by  not  eating  with  them,  not 
.bidding  them  God  speed ;  but  the  persons  against 
whom  he  decrees  so  severelj^,  are  such  as  denied 
Christ  to  be  come  in  the  flesh,  direct  antichrists; 
and,  let  the  sentence  be  as  high  as  it  lists,  in  this 
case  all  that  I  observe  is,  that  s-iace  in  so  damna- 
ble doctrines  nothing  but  spiritual  censure,  sepa- 
ration from  the  communion  of  tlie  faithful,  was 
enjoined  and  prescribed,  we  cannot  pretend  to  an 

*  Lib.  iii.  c.  3.  t  De  Prjescript. 

X  Lib.  ad  Quirinum.    §  In  hunc  locum.     |1  Ibidem. 


328  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

apostolical  precedent,  if  in  matters  of  dispute  and 
innocent  question,  and  of  great  uncertainty  and 
no  malignity,  we  should  proceed  to  sentence  of 
death. 

For  it  is  but  an  absurd  and  illiterate  arguing, 
to  say  that  excommunication  is  a  greater  punish- 
ment, and  killing  a  less  ;  and,  therefore,  whoever 
may  be  excommunicated  may  also  be  put  to  death 
(which,  indeed,  is  the  reasoning  that  Bellarmine 
uses) ;  for,  first,  excommunication  is  not  directly 
and  of  itself  a  greater  punishment  than  corporal 
death;  because  it  is  indefinite  and  incomplete, 
and  in  order  to  a  further  punishment,  which,  if  it 
happens,  then  the  excommunication  was  the  inlet 
to  it ;  if  it  does  not,  the  excommunication  did  not 
signify  half  so  much  as  the  loss  of  a  member,  much 
less  death.  For  it  may  be  totally  ineft'ectual, 
either  by  the  iniquity  of  the  proceeding  or  repent- 
ance of  the  person ;  and,  in  all  times  and  cases,  it 
is  a  medicine  if  the  man  please ;  if  he  will  not,  but 
perseveres  in  his  impiety,  then  it  is  himself  that 
brings  the  censure  to  effect,  that  actuates  the  judg- 
ment, and  gives  a  sting  and  an  energy  upon  that 
which  otherwise  would  be  ;^s//3  AKvpo?,  *'  an  authority 
without  force."  Secondly,  but  when  it  is  at  worst, 
it  does  not  kill  the  soul,  it  only  consigns  it  to  that 
death  which  it  had  deserved,  and  should  have  re- 
ceived independently  from  that  sentence  of  the 
church.  Thirdly,  and  yet  excommunication  is  to 
admirable  purpose ;  for  whether  it  refers  to  the 
person  censured  or  to  others,  it  is  prudential  in 
itself,  it  is  exemplary  to  others,  it  is  medicinal  to 
all.  For  the  person  censured  is  by  this  means 
threatened  into  piety,  and  the  threatening  made 
the  more  energetical  upon  him  because,  by  fiction 
of  law,  or  as  it  were,  by  a  sacramental  represent- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  329 

ment,  the  pains  of  hell  are  made  presential  to  him  ; 
and  so  becomes  an  act  of  prudent  judicature  and 
excellent  discipline,  and  the  best  instrument  of 
spiritual  government:  because  tlie  nearer  the 
threatening  is  reduced  to  matter^  and  the  more 
present  and  circumstantial  it  is  made,  the  more 
operative  it  is  upon  our  spirits  while  they  are 
immerged  in  matter.  And  this  is  the  full  sense 
and  power  of  excommunication  in  its  direct  inten- 
tion ;  consequently  and  accidentally  other  evils 
might  follow  it,  as  in  the  times  of  the  apostles  the 
censured  persons  were  buffeted  by  Satan;  and 
even  at  tliis  day  there  is  less  security  even  to  the 
temporal  condition  of  such  a  person  whom  his 
spiritual  parents  have  anathematized.  But,  be- 
sides this,  I  knov/  no  warrant  to  affirm  any  thing 
of  excommunication,  for  the  sentence  of  the  church 
does  but  declare,  not  effect  the  final  sentence  of 
damnation.  Whoever  deserves  excommunication 
deserves  damnation  ;  and  he  that  repents  shall  be 
saved,  though  he  die  out  of  the  church's  external 
communion  ;  and  if  he  does  not  repent  he  shall  be 
damned,  though  he  was  not  excommunicate. 

But  suppose  it  greater  than  the  sentence  of 
corporal  death,  yet  it  follows  not  because  heretics 
may  be  excommunicate  therefore  killed ;  for  from 
a  greater  to  a  less,  in  a  several  kind  of  things,  the 
argument  concludes  not.  It  is  a  greater  thing  to 
make  an  excellent  discourse  than  to  make  a  shoe ; 
yet  he  that  can  do  the  greater  cannot  do  this  less. 
An  angel  cannot  beget  a  man,  and  yet  he  can  do 
a  greater  matter,  in  that  kind  of  operations  which 
we  term  spiritual  and  angelical.  And  if  this  were 
concluding,  that  whoever  may  be  excommunicate 
may  be  killed,  then,  because  of  excommunications 
the  church  is  confessed  the  sole  a.nd  entire  judge, 
28* 


S30  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

she  is  also  an  absolute  disposer  of  the  lives  of 
persons.  I  believe  this  will  be  but  ill  doctrine  in 
Spain :  for  in  Bulla  Ccenfe  Domini,  the  king  of 
Spain  is  every  year  excommunicated  on  Maunday 
Thursday.  But  if,  by  the  same  power,  he  might 
also  be  put  to  death  (as  upon  this  ground  he  may), 
the  pope  might,  with  more  ease,  be  invested  in 
that  part  of  St.  Peter's  patrimony  which  that  king 
hath  invaded  and  surprised.  But  besides  this,  it 
were  extreme  harsh  doctrine  in  a  Roman  con- 
sistory, from  whence  excommunications  issue  for 
trifles,  for  fees,  for  not  suffering  themselves  infi- 
nitely to  be  oppressed,  for  any  thing :  if  this  be 
greater  than  death,  how  great  a  tyranny  is  that 
which  does  more  than  kill  men  for  less  than 
ti'ifles ;  or  else  how  inconsequent  is  that  argument 
which  concludes  its  purpose  upon  so  false  pretence 
and  supposition  ? 

Well,  however  zealous  tlie  apostles  were  against 
heretics,  yet  none  were  by  them  or  their  dictates 
put  to  death.  The  death  of  Annanias  and  Sap- 
phira,  and  the  blindness  of  Elymas  the  sorcerer, 
amount  not  to  this,  for  they  were  miraculous 
inflictions;  and  the  first  was  a  punishment  to 
vow-breach  and  sacrilege,  the  second  of  sorcery 
and  open  contestation  against  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ;  neither  of  them  concerned  the  case  of 
this  present  question.  Or  if  the  case  were  the 
same,  yet  the  authority  is  not  the  same ;  for  he 
that  inflicted  these  punishments  was  infallible,  and 
of  a  power  competent;  but  no  man  at  this  day  is 
so.  But,  as  yet,  people  were  converted  by  mira- 
cles, and  preaching,  and  disputing ;  and  heretics, 
by  the  same  means,  were  redargued,  and  all  men 
instructed,  none  tortured  for  their  opinion.  And 
this  continued  till  Christian  people  were  vexed 


THE   LIRERTV    OF    PROPHESYING.  331 

by  disagreeing  persons,  and  were  impatient  and 
peevish,  by  their  own  too  much  confidence,  and 
the  luxuriancy  of  a  prosperous  fortune;  but 
then  they  would  not  endure  persons  that  did 
dogmatize  any  thing  which  might  intrench  upon 
their  reputation  or  their  interest.  And  it  is  ob- 
servable, that  no  man  nor  no  age  did  ever  teach 
the  lav/fulness  of  putting  heretics  to  death,  till 
they  grew  wanton  with  prosperity.  But  when  the 
reputation  of  the  governors  was  concerned,  when 
the  interests  of  men  were  endangered,  when  they 
had  something  to  lose,  when  they  had  built  their 
estimation  upon  the  credit  of  disputable  questions, 
when  they  began  to  be  jealous  of  other  men,  when 
they  overvalued  themselves  and  their  ov/n  opinions, 
when  some  persons  invaded  bishoprics  upon  pre- 
tence of  new  opinions — then  they,  as  they  thrived 
in  the  favor  of  emperors,  and  in  the  success  of 
their  disputes,  solicited  the  temporal  power  to 
banish,  to  fine,  to  imprison,  and  to  kill  their  ad- 
versaries. 

So  that  the  case  stands  thus : — In  the  best  times, 
amongst  the  best  men,  when  there  were  fewer  tem- 
poral ends  to  be  served,  when  religion  and  the 
pure  and  simple  designs  of  Christianity  were  only 
to  be  promoted ;  in  those  times,  and  amongst  such 
men,  no  persecution  was  actual,  nor  persuaded, 
nor  allowed,  towards  disagreeing  persons.  But 
as  men  had  ends  of  their  own  and  not  of  Christ's, 
as  they  receded  from  their  duty,  and  religion  from 
its  purity ;  as  Christianity  began  to  be  compounded 
with  interests,  and  blended  with  temporal  designs, 
so  men  were  persecuted  for  their  opinions.  This 
is  most  apparent,  if  we  consider  when  persecution 
first  came  in,  and  if  we  observe  how  it  was  checked 
by  the  holiest  and  the  wisest  persons. 


332  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

The  first  great  instance  I  shall  note,  was  in 
Priscillian  and  his  followers,  who  were  condemned 
to  death  bj  the  tyrant  Maximus  :  which  instance, 
although  St.  Jerome  observes  as  a  punishment  and 
judgment  for  the  crime  of  heresy,  yet  is  of  no  use 
in  the  present  question,  because  Maximus  put 
some  Christians  of  all  sorts  to  death  promiscu- 
ously, catholic  and  heretic,  without  choice;  and 
therefore  the  Priscillianists  might  as  well  have 
called  it  a  judgment  upon  the  catholics,  as  the 
catholics  upon  them. 

But  when  Ursaeus  and  Statius,  two  bishops,  pro- 
cured the  Priscillianists'  death,  by  the  power  they 
had  at  court,  St.  Martin  was  so  angry  at  them  for 
their  cruelty,  that  he  excommunicated  them  both. 
And  St.  Ambrose,  upon  the  same  stock,  denied 
his  communion  to  the  Itaciani.  And  the  account 
that  Sulpitius  gives  of  tlie  story  is  this :  "  The 
example  was  worse  than  the  men.  If  the  men 
were  heretical  the  execution  of  them,  however, 
was  unchristian."* 

But  it  was  of  more  authority  that  the  Nicene 
fathers  supplicated  the  emperor,  and  prevailed  for 
the  banishment  of  Arius  ;t  of  this  we  can  give  no 
other  account,  but  that,  by  the  history  of  the  time, 
we  see  baseness  enough,  and  personal  misde- 
meanor, and  factiousness  of  spirit  in  Arius  to  have 
deserved  worse  than  banishment,!  though  the 
obliquity  of  his  opinion  were  not  put  into  the 
balance ;  which  we  have  reason  to  believe  was  not 

*■  "Hoc  modo  homines  luce  indignissimi  pessimo  exemplo 
necati  sunt." 

t  Sozom,  lib.  i.  c.  20. 

j  Socrat.  lib.  i.  c.  26.  cont.  Crescon.  Grammat.  lib.  iii. 
c.  50.  Vide  etiam  Epist.lxi.  ad  Dulciiiura,  et  Epist.  clviii,  et 
cxcix.  et  lib.  i.  c.  29.  cont.  tit.  Petilian.  Vide  etiam  Socrat. 
lib.  iii.  c.  3,  et.  29. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  333 

SO  much  as  considered,  because  Constantine  gave 
toleration  to  differing  opinions,  and  Arius  himself 
was  restored  upon  such  conditions  to  his  country 
and  office,  which  would  not  stand  with  the  ends 
of  the  catholics,  if  they  had  been  severe  exactors 
of  concurrence  and  union  of  persuasions. 

I  am  still  within  the  scene  of  ecclesiastical  per- 
sons, and  am  considering  what  the  opinions  of  the 
learnedest  and  the  holiest  prelates  were  concern- 
ing this  great  question.  If  we  will  believe  St. 
Austin  (who  was  a  credible  person),  no  good  man 
did  allow  it.  "  No  good  men  approve  of  inflicting 
death  upon  any  one,  though  he  be  a  heretic."* 
This  was  St.  Austin's  final  opinion ;  for  he  had 
first  been  of  the  mind  that  it  was  not  honest  to  do 
any  violence  to  mispersuaded  persons ;  and  when, 
upon  an  accident  happening  in  Hippo,  he  had 
altered  and  retracted  that  part  of  the  opinion,  yet, 
then  also  he  excepted  death,  and  would  by  no 
means  have  any  mere  opinion  made  capital.  But 
for  aught  appears,  St.  Austin  had  greater  reason 
to  have  retracted  that  retraction  than  his  first 
opinion:  for  his  saying,  oinidlis  bonis  placet ,  ''no 
good  men  approve  of  it,"  was  as  true  as  the  thing 
was  reasonable  it  should  be  so.  Witness  those 
known  testimonies  of  Tertullian,t  Cyprian,:}:  Lac- 
tantius,§  Jerome,||  Sulpitius  Severus,*!!  Minutius,** 
Hilary,tt  Damascen,J:j:  Chrysostom,§§  Theophy- 
lact,[|||  and  Bernard,^^  and  divers  others,  whom 

*  "  Nullis  tamen  bonis  in  catholica  hoc  placet,  si  usque  ad 
mortem  in  quenquam,  licet  hareticum,  saeviatur." — Lib.  ii. 
cap.  5.  Retractat.  Vide  Epist.  48,  ad  Vincent,  script,  post 
Retract,  et  Epist.  50,  ad  Bonifac. 

t  Ad  Scapulam.  %  Lib.  iii.  Ep.  1.  Epist. 

§  Lib.  V.  c.  20.         11  In  cap.  13,  Matt,  et  in  cap.  2.  Hos. 

1[  In  Vit  St.  Martin.      **  Octav.      ft  Cont.  Auxent.  Arr. 

XX  3  Sect.  c.  32.  §§  In  cap.  13,  Matt.  Horn.  47. 

nil  In  Evang.  Matt.       HIT  In  verba  Apost.  fides  ex  audita. 


S34  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

the  reader  may  find  quoted  by  the  archbishop  of 
Spalato.* 

Against  this  concurrent  testimony  my  reading 
can  furnish  me  with  no  adversary  nor  contrary  in- 
stances, but  in  Atticus  of  Constantinople,  Theo- 
dosius  of  Synada,  in  Statins  and  Ursaeus,  before 
reckoned.  Only,  indeed,  some  of  the  later  popes 
of  Rome  began  to  be  busy  and  unmerciful,  but  it 
was  then  when  themselves  were  secure,  and  their 
interests  great,  and  their  temporal  concernments 
highly  considerable. 

For  it  is  most  true,  and  not  amiss  to  observe 
it,  that  no  man  who  was  under  the  ferula  did  ever 
think  it  lawful  to  have  opinions  forced,  or  heretics 
put  to  death;  and  yet  many  men,  who  themselves 
have  escaped  the  danger  of  a  pile  and  a  faggot, 
have  changed  their  opinion  just  as  the  case  was 
altered ;  that  is,  as  themselves  were  unconcerned 
in  the  suffering.  Petilian,  Parmenian,  and  Gau- 
dentiusjt  by  no  means  would  allow  it  lawful,  for 
themselves  were  in  danger,  and  were  upon  that 
side  that  is  ill  thought  of  and  discountenanced : 
but  Gregory^  and  Leo,§  popes  of  Rome,  upon 
whose  side  the  authority  and  advantages  were, 
thought  it  lawful  they  should  be  punished  and 
persecuted,  for  themselves  were  unconcerned  in 
the  danger  of  suffering.  And  therefore  St.  Gre- 
gory commends  the  exarch  of  Ravenna,  for  forcing 
them  who  dissented  from  those  men  who  called 
themselves  the  church.  And  there  were  some 
divines  in  the  Lower  Germany,  who,  upon  great 
reasons,  spake  against  the  tyranny  of  the  inquisi- 

*  Lib.  viii.  de  Rep.  Eccles.  cap.  8. 
t  Apud.  Aug.  lib.  i.  c.  7,  cont.  Epist.  Parmenian.  et  lib.  ii. 
c.  10,  cont.  tit.  Petilian. 

t  Epist.  i.  ad  Turbiura.  §  Lib.  i.  Ep.  72. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  335 

tion,  and  restraining  prophesying,  who  yet,  when 
they  had  shaked  oft*  the  Spanish  yoke,  began  to 
persecute  their  brethren.  It  was  unjust  in  them,  in 
all  men  unreasonable  and  uncharitable,  and  often 
increases  the  error,  but  never  lessens  the  danger. 
But  yet,  although  the  church,  I  mean  in  her 
distinct  and  clerical  capacity,  was  against  destroy- 
ing or  punishing  difterence  in  opinion,  till  the 
popes  of  Rome  did  super-seminate,  and  persuade 
the  contrary,  yet  the  bishops  did  persuade  the 
emperors  to  make  laws  against  heretics,  and  to 
punish  disobedient  persons  with  fines,  with  im- 
prisonment, with  death,  and  banishment  respect- 
ively. This,  indeed,  calls  us  to  a  new  account : 
for  the  churchmen  might  not  proceed  to  blood,  nor 
corporal  inflictions,  but  might  they  not  deliver 
over  to  the  secular  arm,  and  persuade  temporal 
princes  to  do  it  ?  For  this  I  am  to  say,  that  since 
it  is  notorious  that  the  doctrine  of  the  clero;y  was 
against  punishing  heretics,  the  laws  which  were 
made  by  the  emperors  against  them  might  be  for 
restraint  of  differing  religion,  in  order  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  public  peace,  which  is  too  fre- 
quently violated  by  the  division  of  opinions.  But 
I  am  not  certain  whether  tliat  was  always  the 
reason,  or  whether  or  no  some  bishops  of  the  court 
did  not  also  serve  their  own  ends,  in  giving  their 
princes  such  untoward  counsel ;  but  we  find  tlie 
laws  made  severally  to  several  purposes,  in  divers 
cases,  and  with  different  severity.  Constantine 
the  emperor  made  a  sanction,  *'that  they  who 
erred  might  enjoy  the  blessing  of  peace  and  quiet- 
ness equally  with  the  faithful."*     The  emperor 

*  "  Ut  parem  cum  iidelibus  ii  qui  errant  pacis  et  quietis 
fruitionem  gaudentes  accipiant."— Apud.  Euseb.  de  Vita 
Constant. 


336  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

Gratian  decreed,  "that  every  one  might  follow 
what  religious  opinion  he  chose,  and  that  all  might 
come  to  the  ecclesiastical  conventions  without 
apprehension  ;"*  but  he  excepted  the  Manichees, 
the  Photinians,  and  Eunomians.  Theodosius  the 
elder  made  a  law  of  death  against  the  Anabaptists 
of  his  time,  and  banished  Eunomius,  and  against 
other  erring  persons  appointed  a  pecuniary  mulct ; 
but  he  did  no  executions  so  severe  as  his  sanc- 
tions, to  show  they  were  made  i7i  terrorem  only.t 
So  were  tlie  laws  of  Valentinian  and  Martian,! 
decreeing,  contra  omnes  qui  prava  docere  tenent, 
"who  persisted  in  teaching  heretical  opinions," 
that  they  should  be  put  to  death ;  so  did  Michael§ 
the  emperor,  but  Justinian  only  decreed  banish- 
ment. 

But  whatever  whispers  some  politics  might 
make  to  their  princes,  as  the  wisest  and  holiest 
did  not  think  it  lawful  for  churchmen  alone  to  do 
executions,  so  neither  did  they  transmit  such  per- 
sons to  the  secular  judicature.  And  therefore, 
when  the  edict  of  Macedonius,  the  president,  was 
so  ambiguous,  that  it  seemed  to  threaten  death  to 
heretics  unless  they  recanted,  St.  Austin  admo- 
nished him  carefully  to  provide  that  no  heretic 
should  be  put  to  death ;  alleging  it,  also,  not  only 
to  be  unchristian,  but  illegal  also,  and  not  war- 
ranted by  imperial  constitutions ;  for  before  his 
time  no  laws  were  made  for  their  being  put  to 
death;  but,  however,  he  prevailed  that  Mace- 
donius published  another  edict,  more  explicit  and 

*  "  Ut  quam  quisque  vellet  religionem  sequeretur ;  et  con- 
venlus  Ecclesiasticog  semoto  metu  omnes  agerent." 

t  Vide  Socrat.  lib.  vii.  c.  12. 

X  Vid.  Cod.  de  Haeretic.  L.  Manichees.  et  leg.  Ajriani,  et 
t.  Quicunque. 

§  Apud  Paulmn  Diac.  lib.  xvi.  et  lib.  x?dv 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  337 

less  seemingl J  severe.  But  in  lils  epistle  to 
Donatus,  the  African  proconsul,  he  is  more  con- 
fident and  determinate :  "  We  are  impelled  by 
necessity  rather  to  perish  by  them,  than  to  rush 
upon  tliose  who  are  devoted  to  destruction  by 
your  decrees."* 

But  afterwards,  many  got  a  trick  of  giving  them 
over  to  the  secular  power,  which  at  the  best  is  no 
better  than  hypocrisy,  removing  envy  from  them  - 
selves,  and  laying  it  upon  others ;  a  refusing  to  do 
that  in  external  act  which  they  do  in  council  and 
approbation;  which  is  a  transmitting  the  act  to 
another,  and  retaining  a  proportion  of  guilt  unto 
themselves,  even  their  own  and  the  otlier's  too. 
I  end  tliis  with  the  saying  of  Clirysostom  :  "  We 
ought  to  reprove  and  condemn  impieties  and 
heretical  doctrines,  but  to  spare  the  men,  and  to 
pray  for  tlieir  salvation."! 


*  "Necessitate  nobis  impacta  et  indicta,  ut  potius  occidi 
ab  eis  eligamus,  quam  eos  occidendos  vestris  judiciis  ingera- 
mus." 

t  "  Dogmata  impia,  et  quas  ab  hsereticis  profecta  sunt  ar- 

fuere  et  anathematizare  oportet,  hominibus  autem  parcen- 
um  et  pro  salute  orum  orandum." — Senn.  de  Anathemate, 


29 


138  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION    XV. 


How  far  the  Church  or  Governors  may  act  to  the 
restraining  false  or  differing  Opinions. 

But  althougli  heretical  persons  are  not  to  be 
destroyed,  yet  heresy  being  a  work  of  the  flesh, 
and  all  heretics  criminal  persons,  whose  acts  and 
doctrine  have  influence  upon  communities  of  men, 
whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  the  governors  of 
the  republic,  or  church,  respectively,  are  to  do 
their  duties  in  restraining  those  mischiefs  which 
may  happen  to  their  several  charges,  for  whose 
indemnity  they  are  answerable.  And  therefore, 
according  to  the  effect  or  malice  of  the  doctrine 
or  the  person,  so  the  cognizance  of  them  belongs 
to  several  judicatures.  If  it  be  false  doctrine  in 
any  capacity,  and  doth  mischief  in  any  sense,  or 
teaches  ill  life  in  any  instance,  or  encourages  evil 
in  any  particular,  s-^i  aTria-TofM^iiv,  these  men  must  be 
silenced  ;  they  must  be  convinced  by  sound  doc- 
trine, and  put  to  silence  by  spiritual  evidence,  and 
restrained  by  authority  ecclesiastical ;  tliat  is,  by 
spiritual  censures,  according  as  it  seems  necessary 
to  him  who  is  most  concerned  in  the  regimen  of 
the  church.  For  all  this  we  have  precept,  and 
precedent  apostolical,  and  much  reason.  For  by 
thus  doing  the  governor  of  the  church  uses  all 
tliat  authority  that  is  competent,  and  all  the  means 
that  is  reasonable,  and  that  proceeding  which  is 
regular,  that  he  may  discharge  his  cure  and  secure 
his  flock.  And  that  he  possibly  may  be  deceived 
in  judging  a  doctrine  to  be  heretical,  and,  by  con- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYIInG.  339 

sequence,  the  person  excommunicate  suffers  in- 
jury, is  no  argument  against  the  reasonableness 
of  the  proceeding.  For  all  the  injury  that  is 
is  visible  and  in  appearance,  and  so  is  his  crime. 
Judges  must  judge  according  to  their  best  reason, 
guided  bj  the  law  of  God  as  their  rule,  and  by 
evidence  and  appearance  as  their  best  instrument, 
and  they  can  judge  no  better.  If  the  judges  be 
good  and  prudent,  the  error  of  proceeding  will 
not  be  great  nor  ordinaiy;  and  there  can  be  no 
better  establishment  of  human  judicature  than  is 
a  fallible  proceeding  upon  an  infallible  ground : 
and  if  the  judgment  of  heresy  be  made  by  esti- 
mate and  proportion  of  the  opinion  to  a  good  or  a 
bad  life  respectively,  supposing  an  error  in  the 
deduction,  there  will  be  no  malice  in  the  conclu- 
sion; and  that  he  endeavors  to  secuie  piety  ac- 
cording to  the  best  of  his  understanding,  and  yet 
did  mistake  in  his  proceeding,  is  only  an  argu- 
ment that  he  did  his  duty  after  the  manner  of 
men,  possibly  with  the  piety  of  a  saint,  tliough 
not  with  the  understanding  of  an  angel.  And 
the  little  inconvenience  that  happens  to  the  per- 
son injuriously  judged,  is  abundantly  made  up  in 
the  excellency  of  the  discipline,  the  goodness  of 
the  example,  the  care  of  the  public,  and  all  those 
great  influences  into  the  manners  of  men  which 
derive  from  such  an  act  so  publicly  consigned. 
But  such  public  judgment  in  matters  of  opinion 
must  be  seldom  and  curious,  and  never  but  to 
secure  piety  and  a  holy  life;  for  in  matters 
speculative,  as  all  determinations  are  fallible,  so 
scarce  any  of  them  are  to  purpose,  nor  ever  able 
to  make  compensation  of  either  side,  either  for 
the  public  fraction  or  the  particulai'  injustice,  if  it 
should  so  happen  in  tlie  censure. 


340  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

But  then,  as  the  church  may  proceed  thus  far, 
yet  no  Christian  man,  or  community  of  men,  may 
proceed  farther.  For  if  they  be  deceived  in  their 
judgment  and  censure,  and  yet  have  passed  only 
spiritual  censures,  they  are  totally  ineffectual,  and 
come  to  nothing ;  there  is  no  effect  remaining  upon 
the  soul,  and  such  censures  are  not  to  meddle 
with  the  body  so  much  as  indirectly.  But  if  any 
other  judgment  pass  upon  persons  erring,  such 
judgments  whose  effects  remain,  if  the  person  be 
unjustly  censured,  nothing  will  answer  and  make 
compensation  for  such  injuries.  If  a  person  be  ex- 
communicate unjustly,  it  will  do  him  no  hurt ;  but 
if  he  be  killed,  or  dismembered  unjustly,  tliat  cen- 
sure and  infliction  is  not  made  ineffectual  by  his 
innocence :  he  is  certainly  killed  and  dismembered. 
So  that  as  the  church's  authority  in  such  cases,  so 
restrained  and  made  prudent,  cautelous,  and  or- 
derly, is  just  and  competent ;  so  the  proceeding  is 
reasonable,  it  is  provident  for  the  public,  and  the 
inconveniences  that  may  fall  upon  particulars  so 
little,  as  that  the  public  benefit  makes  ample 
compensation,  so  long  as  the  proceeding  is  but 
spiritual. 

This  discourse  is  in  the  case  of  such  opinions, 
which  by  the  former  rules  are  formal  heresies,  and 
upon  practical  inconveniences.  But,  for  matters 
of  question  which  have  not  in  them  an  enmity  to 
the  public  tranquillity,  as  the  republic  hath  nothing 
to  do  upon  the  ground  of  all  the  former  discourses, 
so,  if  the  church  meddles  with  them  where  they 
do  not  derive  into  ill  life,  either  in  the  person  or 
in  the  consequent,  or  else  the  destructions  of  the 
foundation  of  religion,  which  is  all  one ;  for  that 
those  fundamental  articles  are  of  greatest  neces- 
sity, in  order  to  a  virtuous  and  godly  life,  wliich  is 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  341 

wholly  built  upon  tliem  (and  therefore  are  princi- 
pally necessary),  if  she  meddles  further,  otherwise 
than  by  preaching,  and  conferring,  and  exhorta- 
tion, slie  becomes  tyrannical  in  her  government, 
makes  herself  an  immediate  judge  of  consciences 
and  persuasions,  lords  it  over  their  faith,  destrovs 
unity  and  charity;  and  as  he  that  dogmatizes  the 
opinion  becomes  criminal  if  he  troubles  the  church 
with  an  immodest,  peevish,  and  pertinacious  pro- 
posal of  his  article,  not  simply  necessary;  so  the 
church  does  not  do  her  duty,  if  she  so  condemns 
it  pro  tribunali,  as  to  enjoin  him  and  all  her  sub- 
jects to  believe  the  contrary.  And  as  there  may 
be  pertinacy  in  doctrine,  so  there  may  be  pertinacy 
in  judging,  and  both  are  faults.  The  peace  of  i'm 
church  and  the  unity  of  her  doctrine  is  best  con- 
served when  it  is  judged  by  the  proportion  it  hath 
to  that  rule  of  unity  which  the  apostles  gave,  that 
is,  the  creed  for  articles  of  mere  belief,  and  the 
precepts  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  practical  rules  of 
piety,  which  are  most  plain  and  easy,  and  without 
controversy  set  down  in  the  gospels  and  writings 
of  the  apostles.  But  to  multiply  articles,  and  adopt 
them  into  the  family  of  the  faith,  and  to  require 
assent  to  such  articles,  which  (as  St.  Paul's  phrase 
is)  are  of  doubtful  disputation,  equal  to  that  assent 
we  give  to  matters  of  faith,  is  to  build  a  tower 
upon  the  top  of  a  bull  rush ;  and  the  further  the 
effect  of  such  proceedings  does  extend,  the  worse 
they  are ;  the  very  making  such  a  law  is  unrea- 
sonable; the  inflicting  spiritual  censures  upon 
them  that  cannot  do  so  much  violence  to  their 
understanding  as  to  obey  it,  is  unjust  and  inef- 
fectual ;  but  to  punish  the  person  with  death,  or 
with  corporal  infliction,  indeed  it  is  effectual,  but 
it  is  therefore  tyrannical.  We  liave  seen  what 
29* 


342  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  church  may  do  towards  restraining  false  or 
differing  opinions ;  next  I  shall  consider,  by  way 
of  corollary,  what  the  prince  may  do  as  for  his 
interest,  and  only  in  securing  his  people,  and 
serving  the  ends  of  true  religion. 


SECTION    XVI. 

Whether  it  be  lawful  for  a  Prince  to  give  Toleration 
to  several  Religions. 

For  upon  these  very  grounds  we  may  easily  give 
account  of  that  great  question,  whether  it  be  lawful 
for  a  prince  to  give  toleration  to  several  religions  ? 

For,  first,  it  is  a  great  fault  that  men  will  call  the 
several  sects  of  Christians  by  the  names  of  several 
religions.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  form 
of  sound  doctrine  and  wholesome  words,  which  is 
set  down  in  Scripture  indefinitely,  actually  con- 
veyed to  us  by  plain  places,  and  separated  as  for 
the  question  of  necessary  or  not  necessary  by  the 
symbol  of  the  apostles.  Those  impertinencies 
which  the  wantonness  and  vanity  of  men  hath 
commenced,  which  their  interests  have  promoted, 
which  serve  not  truth  so  much  as  their  own  ends, 
are  far  from  being  distinct  religions ;  for  matters 
of  opinion  are  no  parts  of  the  worship  of  God,  nor 
in  order  to  it,  but  as  they  promote  obedience  to  his 
commandments;  and  when  they  contribute  to- 
wards it,  are,  in  that  proportion  as  they  contribute, 


THE  LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  S4S 

parts  and  actions,  and  minute  particulars  of  that 
religion  to  whose  end  they  do,  or  pretend  to  serve. 
And  such  are  all  the  sects  and  all  the  pretences 
of  Christians,  but  pieces  and  minutes  of  Chris- 
tianity, if  they  do  serve  the  great  end,  as  every 
man  foi  his  own  sect  and  interest  believes  for  his 
share  it  does. 

2.  Toleration  hath  a  double  sense  or  purpose ;. 
for  sometimes  by  it  men  understand  a  public  license 
and  exercise  of  a  sect ;  sometimes  it  is  only  an  in- 
demnity of  the  persons  privately  to  convene  and 
to  opine  as  they  see  cause,  and  as  they  mean  to 
answer  to  God.  Both  these  are  very  much  to  the 
same  purpose,  unless  some  persons  whom  we  are 
bound  to  satisfy  be  scandalized;  and  then  the 
prince  is  bound  to  do  as  he  is  bound  to  satisfy. 
To  God  it  is  all  one.  For,  abstracting  from  the 
offence  of  persons,  which  is  to  be  considered  just 
as  our  obligation  is  to  content  the  persons,  it  is  all 
one  whether  we  indulge  to  them  to  meet  publicly 
or  privately  to  do  actions  of  religion,  concerning 
which  we  are  not  persuaded  that  they  are  truly 
holy.  To  God  it  is  just  one  to  be  in  the  dark  and 
in  the  light ;  the  thing  is  the  same,  only  the  cir- 
cumstance of  public  and  private  is  difterent,  which 
cannot  be  concerned  in  any  thing,  nor  can  it  con- 
cern any  thing  but  the  matter  of  scandal  and  rela- 
tion to  the  minds  and  fantasies  of  certain  persons. 

3.  So  that  to  tolerate  is  not  to  persecute.  And 
the  question,  whether  the  prince  may  tolerate 
divers  persuasions,  is  no  more  than  whether  he 
may  lawfully  persecute  any  man  for  not  being  of 
his  opinion.  Now,  in  this  case,  he  is  just  so  to 
tolerate  diversity  of  persuasions  as  he  is  to  tolerate 
public  actions ;  for  no  opinion  is  judicable,  nor  no 
person  punishable,  but  for  a  sin ;  and  if  his  opinion, 


344  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

by  reason  of  its  managing  or  its  effect,  be  a  sin  in 
itself,  or  becomes  a  sin  to  the  person,  then,  as  he 
is  to  do  towards  other  sins,  so  to  that  opinion  or 
man  so  opining.  But  to  believe  so,  or  not  so, 
when  there  is  no  more  but  mere  believing,  is  not 
in  his  power  to  enjoin — therefore  not  to  punish. 
And  it  is  not  only  lawful  to  tolerate  disagreeing 
persuasions,  but  the  authority  of  God  only  is  com- 
petent to  take  notice  of  it,  and  infallible  to  deter- 
mine it,  and  fit  to  judge  ;  ?tnd  therefore  no  human 
authority  is  sufficient  to  do  all  those  things  which 
can  justify  the  inflicting  temporal  punishments 
upon  such  as  do  not  conform  in  their  persuasions 
to  a  rule  or  authority  which  is  not  only  fallible, 
but  supposed  by  the  disagreeing  person  to  be 
actually  deceived. 

But  I  consider,  that  in  the  toleration  of  a  differ- 
ent opinion,  religion  is  not  properly  and  imme- 
diately concerned,  so  as  in  any  degree  to  be 
endangered.  For  it  may  be  safe  in  diversity  of 
persuasions,  and  it  is  also  a  part  of  Christian 
religion,*  that  the  liberty  of  men's  consciences 
should  be  preserved  in  all  things  where  God  hath 
Dot  set  a  limit  and  made  a  restraint ;  that  the  soul 
of  man  should  be  free,  and  acknowledge  no  master 
but  Jesus  Christ ;  that  matters  spiritual  should  not 
be  restrained  by  punishments  corporal ;  that  the 
same  meekness  and  charity  should  be  preserved 
in  the  promotion  of  Christianity  that  gave  it 
foundation,  and  increment,  and  firmness  in  its 
first  publication ;  that  conclusions  should  not  be 
more  dogmatical  than  the  virtual  resolution  and 
efBcacy  of  the  premises ;   and  that  the   persons 

*  "  Humani  juris  et  naturalis  potestatis,  unicuiq.  quod 
putaverit,  colere.  Sed  nee  religionis  est  cogere  reii;.:ionein, 
qua  suscipi  sponte  debet,  nan  vi." — Tertul.  ad  Scapulam. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  345 

should  not  more  certainly  be  condemned  than 
their  opinions  confuted;  and  lastly,  that  the  in- 
firmities of  men  and  difficulties  of  things  should 
be  both  put  in  balance,  to  make  abatement  in  the 
definitive  sentence  against  men's  persons.  But 
then,  because  toleration  of  opinions  is  not  properly 
a  question  of  religion,  it  may  be  a  question  of 
policy:  and  although  a  man  may  be  a  good  Chris- 
tian, though  he  believe  an  error  not  fundamental, 
and  not  directly  or  evidently  impious,  yet  his 
opinion  may  accidentally  disturb  the  public  peace, 
thi'ough  the  overactiveness  of  the  person,  and  the 
confidence  of  their  belief,  and  the  opinion  of  its 
appendant  necessity;  and  therefore  toleration  of 
differing  persuasions,  in  these  cases,  is  to  be  con- 
sidered upon  political  grounds,  and  is  just  so  to  be 
admitted  or  denied  as  the  opinions  or  toleration 
of  them  may  consist  with  the  public  and  necessary 
ends  of  government.  Only  this:  as  Christian 
princes  must  look  to  the  interest  of  their  govern- 
ment, so  especially  must  they  consider  the  interests 
of  Christianity,  and  not  call  redargution  or  modest 
discovery  of  an  established  error,  by  the  name  of 
disturbance  of  the  peace.  For  it  is  very  likely 
that  the  peevishness  and  impatience  of  contradic- 
tion in  the  governors  may  break  the  peace.  Let 
them  remember  but  the  gentleness  of  Christianity, 
the  liberty  of  consciences  which  ought  to  be  pre- 
served ;  and  let  them  do  justice  to  the  persons, 
whoever  they  are  that  are  peevish,  provided  no 
man's  person  be  overborne  with  prejudice.  For 
if  it  be  necessary  for  all  men  to  subscribe  to  the 
present  established  religion,  by  the  same  reason, 
at  another  time,  a  man  may  be  bound  to  subscribe 
to  the  contradictory,  and  so  to  all  religions  in  the 
world.    And  they  only  who  by  their  too  much 


346  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

confidence  entitle  God  to  all  their  fancies,  and 
make'  them  to  be  questions  of  religion  and  evi- 
dences for  heaven,  or  consignations  to  hell,  they 
only  think  this  doctrine  unreasonable ;  and  they 
are  the  men  that  first  disturb  the  church's  peace, 
and  then  think  there  is  no  appeasing  the  tumult 
but  by  getting  the  victory.  But  they  that  consider 
things  wisely,  understand  that  since  salvation  and 
damnation  depend  not  upon  impertinencies,  and 
yet  that  public  peace  and  tranquillity  may,  the 
prince  is  in  this  case  to  seek  how  to  secure  govern- 
ment, and  the  issues  and  intentions  of  that,  while 
there  is  in  the  cases  directly  no  insecurity  to  reli- 
gion, unless  by  the  accidental  uncharitableness  of 
them  that  dispute ;  which  uncharitableness  is  also 
much  prevented  when  the  public  peace  is  secured, 
and  no  person  is  on  either  side  engaged  upon 
revenge,*  or  troubled  with  disgrace,  or  vexed  witli 
punishments  by  any  decretory  sentence  against 
him.  It  was  the  saying  of  a  wise  statesman  (I 
mean  Thuanus),t  "  If  you  persecute  heretics  or 
discrepants,  they  unite  themselves  as  to  a  common 
defence :  if  you  permit  them,  they  divide  them- 
selves upon  private  interest ;"  and  the  rather,  if 
this  interest  was  an  ingredient  of  the  opinion. 

The  sum  is  tliis: — ^it  concerns  the  duty  of  a 
prince  because  it  concerns  the  honor  of  God,  that 
all  vices  and  every  part  of  ill  life  be  discounte- 
nanced and  restrained ;  and  therefore,  in  relation 
to  that,  opinions  are  to  be  dealt  with.  For  the  un- 
derstanding being  to  direct  the  will,  and  opinions 
to  guide  our  practices,  they  are  considerable  only 

*  "  Dextera  prsecipue  capit  indulgentia  mentes,  asperitas 
odium  saevaque  bella  parit." 

t  "  Hffiretici  qui  pace  data  factionibus  scinduntuii  perse- 
cutione  uniuntur  contra  remp." 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  347 

as  they  teach  impiety  and  vice,  as  they  either 
dishonor  God  or  disobey  him.  Now,  all  such  doc- 
trines are  to  be  condemned ;  but  for  the  persons 
preaching  such  doctrines,  if  they  neither  justify 
nor  approve  the  pretended  consequences  which  are 
certainly  impious,  they  are  to  be  separated  from 
that  consideration.  But  if  they  know  such  conse- 
quences and  allow  them,  or  if  they  do  not  stay  till 
the  doctrines  produce  impiety,  but  take  sin  before- 
hand, and  manage  them  impiously  in  any  sense ; 
or  if  either  themselves  or  their  doctrine  do  really 
and  without  color  or  feigned  pretext  disturb  the 
public  peace  and  just  interests,  they  are  not  to  be 
suffered.  In  all  other  cases,  it  is  not  only  lawful  to 
permit  them,  but  it  is  also  necessary  that  princes 
and  all  in  authority  should  not  persecute  discre- 
pant opinions.  And  in  such  cases,  wherein  per- 
sons not  otherwise  incompetent  are  bound  to  re- 
prove an  error  (as  they  are  in  many),  in  all  these, 
if  the  prince  makes  restraint,  he  hinders  men  from 
doing  their  duty,  and  from  obeying  the  laws  of 
Jesus  Christ. 


348  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 


SECTION   XVII. 

Of  Compliance  ivith  disagreeing  Persom,  or  iveak 
ConscAences  in  general. 

Upon  these  grounds  it  remains  that  we  reduce 
this  doctrine  to  practical  conclusions,  and  consider 
among  the  diftering  sects  and  opinions  which 
trouble  these  parts  of  Christendom,  and  come  into 
our  concernment,  which  sects  of  Christians  are  to 
be  tolerated,  and  how  far ;  and  which  are  to  be 
restrained  and  punished  in  their  several  propor- 
tions. 

The  first  consideration  is,  that  since  diversity 
of  opinions  does  more  concern  public  peace  than 
religion,  what  is  to  be  done  to  persons  who  disobey 
a  public  sanction,  upon  a  true  allegation  that 
they  cannot  believe  it  to  be  lawful  to  obey  such 
constitutions,  although  they  disbelieve  them  upon 
insufficient  grounds ;  that  is,  whether  in  constitiita 
lege  disagreeing  persons  or  weak  consciences  are 
to  be  complied  withal,  and  their  disobeying  and 
disagreeing  tolerated  ? 

1.  In  this  question  there  is  no  distinction  can 
be  made  between  persons  truly  weak  and  but  pre- 
tending so.  For  all  that  pretend  to  it  are  to  be 
allowed  the  same  libertj^,  whatsoever  it  be :  for  no 
man's  spirit  is  known  to  any  but  to  God  and  him- 
self; and  therefore  pretences  and  realities  in  this 
case  are  both  alike,  in  order  to  the  public  tolera- 
tion. And  this  very  thing  is  one  argument  to  per- 
suade a  n  sgative.     For  the  chief  thing  in  this  case 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  349 

is  the  concernment  of  public  government,  which 
is  then  most  of  all  violated,  when  what  may  pru- 
dently be  permitted  to  some  purposes  may  be 
demanded  to  many  more,  and  the  piety  of  the  laws 
abused  to  the  impiety  of  other  men's  ends.  And 
if  laws  be  made  so  malleable  as  to  comply  with 
weak  consciences,  he  that  hath  a  mind  to  disobey 
is  made  impregnable  against  the  coercitive  power 
of  the  law  by  this  pretence.  For  a  weak  conscience 
signifies  notliing  in  this  case  but  a  dislike  of  the 
law  upon  a  contrary  persuasion.  For  if  some  weak 
consciences  do  obey  the  law,  and  others  do  not,  it 
is  not  their  weakness  indefinitely  that  is  the  cause 
of  it,  but  a  definite  and  particular  persuasion  to 
the  contrary.  So  that  if  such  a  pretence  be  excuse 
sufficient  from  obeying,  then  the  law  is  a  sanction 
obliging  every  one  to  obey  that  hath  a  mind  to  it, 
and  he  that  hath  not  may  choose;  that  is,  it  is  no 
law  at  all :  for  he  that  hath  a  mind  to  it  may  do  it, 
if  there  be  no  law,  and  he  that  hath  no  mind  to  it 
need  not  for  all  the  law. 

And  therefore  the  wit  of  man  cannot  prudently 
frame  a  law  of  that  temper  and  expedient,  but 
either  he  must  lose  the  formality  of  a  law,  and 
neither  have  power  coercitive  nor  obligatory,  but 
by  the  vv^ill  of  inferiors,  or  else  it  cannot,  antece- 
dently to  the  particular  case,  give  leave  to  any 
sort  of  men  to  disagree  or  disobey. 

2.  Suppose  that  a  law  be  made,  with  great  reason, 
so  as  to  satisfy  divers  persons,  pious  and  prudent, 
that  it  complies  with  the  necessity  of  government, 
and  promotes  the  interest  of  God's  service  and 
public  order,  it  may  be  easily  imagined  that  these 
persons,  which  are  obedient  sons  of  the  church, 
may  be  as  zealous  for  the  public  order  and  disci- 
pline of  the  church,  as  others  for  their  opinion 
30 


350  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

against  it,  and  may  be  as  much  scandalized,  if 
disobedience  be  tolerated,  as  others  are  if  the  law 
be  exacted;  and  what  shall  be  done  in  this  case? 
Both  sorts  of  men  cannot  be  complied  withal, 
because,  as  these  pretend  to  be  offended  at  the 
law,  and  by  consequence  (if  they  understand  the 
consequents  of  their  own  opinion),  at  them  that 
obey  the  law ;  so  the  others  are  justly  offended 
at  them  that  unjustly  disobey  it.  If,  therefore, 
there  be  any  on  the  right  side  as  confident  and 
zealous  as  they  who  are  on  the  wrong  side,  then 
the  disagreeing  persons  are  not  to  be  complied  with 
to  avoid  giving  offence ;  for  if  they  be,  offence  is 
given  to  better  persons,  and  so  the  mischief  which 
such  complying  seeks  to  prevent  is  made  greater 
and  more  unjust,  obedience  is  discouraged,  and 
disobedience  is  legally  canor.ized  for  the  result  of 
a  holy  and  a  tender  conscience. 

3,  Such  complying  with  the  disagreeings  of  a 
sort  of  men,  is  the  total  overthrow  of  all  disci- 
pline ;  and  it  is  better  to  make  no  laws  of  public 
worship,  than  to  rescind  them  in  the  very  consti- 
tution; and  there  can  be  no  end  in  making  the 
sanction  but  to  make  the  law  ridiculous,  and  the 
authority  contemptible.  For,  to  say  that  com- 
plying with  weak  consciences,  in  the  very  framing 
of  a  law  of  discipline,  is  the  way  to  preserve  unity, 
were  all  one  as  to  say,  to  take  away  all  laws  is  the 
best  way  to  prevent  disobedience.  In  such  mat- 
ters of  indifferency,  the  best  way  of  cementing 
the  fraction  is  to  unite  the  parts  in  the  authority ; 
for  then  the  question  is  but  one,  viz.  whether  the 
authority  must  be  obeyed  or  not  ?  But  if  a  per- 
mission be  given  of  disputing  the  particulars,  the 
questions  become  next  to  infinite.  A  mirror,  when 
it  is  broken,  represents  the  object  multiplied  and 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  351 

divided;  but  if  it  be  entire,  and  through  one 
centre  transmits  the  species  to  the  eye,  the  vision 
is  one  and  natural.  Laws  are  the  mirror  in  which 
men  are  to  dress  and  compose  their  actions,  and 
therefore  must  not  be  broken  with  such  clauses  of 
exception,  which  may,  without  remedy,  be  abused, 
to  the  prejudice  of  authority,  and  peace,  and  all 
human  sanctions.  And  I  have  known,  in  some 
churches,  that  this  pretence  hath  been  nothing  but 
a  design  to  discredit  the  law,  to  dismantle  the 
authority  that  made  it,  to  raise  their  own  credit, 
and  a  trophy  of  their  zeal,  to  make  it  a  charac- 
teristic note  of  a  sect,  and  the  cognizance  of  holy 
persons ;  and  yet  the  men  that  claimed  exemption 
from  the  laws,  upon  pretence  of  having  weak  con- 
sciences, if  in  hearty  expression  you  had  told  them 
so  to  their  heads,  they  would  have  spit  in  your 
face,  and  were  so  far  from  confessing  themselves 
■weak,  that  they  thought  themselves  able  to  give 
laws  to  Christendom,  to  instruct  the  greatest 
clerks,  and  to  catechise  the  church  herself.  And 
which  is  the  worst  of  all,  they  who  were  perpetu- 
ally clamorous  that  the  severity  of  the  laws  should 
slacken  as  to  their  particular,  and  in  matter  adia- 
phorous (in  which,  if  the  church  hath  any  autho- 
rity, she  hath  power  to  make  laws),  to  indulge  a 
leave  to  them  to  do  as  they  list,  yet  were  the  most 
imperious  amongst  men,  most  decretory  in  their 
sentences,  and  most  impatient  of  any  disagreeing 
from  them,  though  in  the  least  minute  and  parti- 
cular; whereas,  by  all  the  justice  of  the  world, 
they  who  persuade  such  a  compliance  in  matters 
of  fact,  and  of  so  little  question,  should  not  deny 
to  tolerate  persons  that  differ  in  questions  of  great 
difficulty  and  contestation. 

4.  But  yet,  since  all  things  almost  in  the  world 


352  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

have  been  made  matters  of  dispute,  and  the  will 
of  some  men,  and  the  malice  of  others,  and  the 
infinite  industry  and  pertinacy  of  contesting, 
and  resolution  to  conquer,  hath  abused  some  per- 
sons innocently  into  a  persuasion  that  even  the 
laws  themselves,  though  never  so  prudently  con- 
stituted, are  superstitious  or  impious,  such  persons 
who  are  otherwise  pious,  humble,  and  religious, 
are  not  to  be  destroyed  for  such  matters,  which  in 
themselves  are  not  of  concernment  to  salvation, 
and  neither  are  so  accidentally  to  such  men  and 
in  such  cases  where  they  are  innocently  abused, 
and  they  err  without  purpose  and  design.  And 
therefore,  if  there  be  a  public  disposition  in  some 
persons  to  dislike  laws  of  a  certain  quality,  if  it 
be  foreseen,  it  is  to  be  considered  in  lege  dicenda 
(m  the  framing  of  a  statute);  and  whatever  incon- 
venience or  particular  offence  is  foreseen,  is  either 
to  be  directly  avoided  in  the  law,  or  else  a  com- 
pensation in  the  excellency  of  the  law,  and  cer- 
tain advantages  made  to  outweigh  their  preten- 
sions :  but  in  lege  jam  dicta  (in  a  statute  already 
enacted),  because  there  may  be  a  necessity  some 
persons  should  have  a  liberty  indulged  them,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  governors  of  the  church  should 
be  entrusted  with  a  power  to  consider  the  parti- 
cular case,  rnd  indulge  a  liberty  to  the  person, 
and  grant  personal  dispensations.  This,  I  say,  is 
to  be  done  at  several  times,  upon  particular  in- 
stance, upon  singular  consideration,  and  new 
emergencies.  But  that  a  whole  kind  of  men,  such 
a  kind  to  which  all  men,  without  possibility  of 
being  confuted  may  pretend,  should  at  once,  in 
the  very  frame  of  the  law,  be  permitted  to  disobey, 
is  to  nullify  the  law,  to  destroy  discipline,  and  to 
hallow  disobedience ;  it  takes  away  the  obliging 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  353 

part  of  the  law,  and  makes  that  the  thing  enacted 
shall  not  be  enjoined,  but  tolerated  only;  it  de- 
stroys unity  and  uniformity,  which  to  preserve 
was  the  very  end  of  such  laws  of  discipline ;  it 
bends  the  rule  to  the  thing  which  is  to  be  ruled, 
so  that  the  law  obeys  the  subject,  not  the  subject 
the  law ;  it  is  to  make  a  law  for  particulars,  nor 
upon  general  reason  and  congruity,  against  the 
prudence  and  design  of  all  laws  in  the  world,  and 
absolutely  without  the  example  of  any  church  in 
Christendom;  it  prevents  no  scandal,  for  some 
will  be  scandalized  at  the  authority  itself,  some  at 
the  complying,  and  remissness  of  discipline,  and 
e^everal  men  at  matters  and  upon  ends  contradic- 
tory :  all  which  cannot,  some  ought  not  to  be  com- 
plied withal. 

6.  The  sum  is  this  :  the  end  of  the  laws  of  dis- 
cipline is  in  an  immediate  order  to  the  conser\^a- 
tion  and  ornament  of  the  public,  and  therefore  the 
laws  must  not  so  tolerate,  as  by  conserving  persons 
to  destroy  themselves  and  the  public  benefit;  but 
if  there  be  cause  for  it,  they  must  be  cassated ;  or 
if  there  be  no  sufficient  cause,  tlie  complyings 
must  be  so  as  may  best  preserve  the  particulars, 
in  conjunction  with  the  public  end,  which,  because 
it  is  primarily  intended,  is  of  greatest  considera- 
tion; but  the  particulars,  whetlier  of  case  or  per- 
son, are  to  be  considered  occasionally  and  emer- 
gently  by  the  judges,  butxannot  antecedently  and 
regularly  be  determined  by  a  law. 

But  this  sort  of  men  is  of  so  general  pretence 
that  all  laws  and  all  judges  may  easily  be  abused 
by  them.  Those  sects  which  are  signified  by  a 
name,  wliich  have  a  system  of  articles,  a  body  of 
profession,  may  be  more  clearly  determined  in 
SO* 


354  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

their  question  concerning  the  lawfulness  of  per- 
mitting their  professions  and  assemblies. 

1  shall  instance  in  two,  which  are  most  trouble- 
some and  most  disliked ;  and  bj  an  account  made 
of  these,  we  may  make  judgment  what  may  be 
done  towards  others,  whose  errors  are  not  appre- 
hended of  so  great  malignity.  The  men  I  mean 
are  the  anabaptists  and  the  papists. 


SECTION     XVIII. 

A  particular  consideration  of  the  Opiiiions  of  the 
Anabaptists. 

In  the  Anabaptists  I  consider  only  their  two 
capital  opinions,  the  one  against  the  baptism  of 
infants,  the  other  against  magistracy ;  and  because 
they  produce  different  judgments  and  various 
effects,  all  their  other  fancies,  which  vary  as  the 
moon  does,  may  stand  or  fall  in  their  proportion 
and  likeness  to  these. 

And  first,  I  consider  their  denying  baptism  to 
infants :  although  it  be  a  doctrine  justly  condemned 
by  the  most  sorts  of  Christians,  upon  great  grounds 
of  reason,  yet  possibly  their  defence  may  be  so 
great  as  to  take  off  much,  and  rebate  the  edge  of 
their  adversaries' assault.  It  will  be  neither  un- 
pleasant nor  unprofitable  to  draw  a  short  scheme 
of  plea  for  each  party,  the  result  of  which  possibly 
may  be,  that  though  they  be  deceived,  yet  they 


THE   LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  355 

have  so  great  excuse  on  their  side  that  their  error 
h  not  impudent  or  vincible.  The  baptism  of  in- 
fants rests  wholly  upon  this  discourse. 

When  God  made  a  covenant  with  Abraham,  for 
himself  and  his  posterity,  into  which  the  gentiles 
were  reckoned  by  spiritual  adoption,  he  did,  for 
the  present,  consign  that  covenant  with  the  sa- 
crament of  circumcision.  The  extent  of  which  rite 
v/as  to  all  his  family,  from  the  major  domo  (the 
iiead  or  patriarch)  to  the  proselytus  domicilio  (the 
proselyte  among  his  servants),  and  to  infants  of 
eight  days  old.  Now  the  very  nature  of  this 
covenant  being  covenant  of  faith  for  its  formality, 
and  with  all  faithful  people  for  the  object,  and 
circumcision  being  a  seal  of  this  covenant,  if  ever 
any  rite  do  supervene  to  consign  the  same  cove- 
nant, that  rite  must  acknowledge  circumcision  for 
its  type  and  precedent.  And  this  the  apostles 
tell  us,  in  express  doctrine.  Now  the  nature  of 
types  is  to  give  some  proportions  to  its  successor, 
the  antitype;  and  they  both  being  seals  of  the 
same  righteousness  of  faith,  it  will  not  easily  be 
found  where  these  two  seals  have  any  such  dis- 
tinction in  their  nature  or  purposes,  as  to  apper- 
tain to  persons  of  differing  capacity,  and  not 
equally  concern  all ;  and  this  argument  was 
thought  of  so  much  force  by  some  of  those  excel- 
lent men  which  were  bishops  in  the  primitive 
church,  that  a  good  b'shop  writ  an  epistle  to  St. 
Cyprian,  to  know  of  him  whether  or  no  it  were 
lawful  to  baptize  infants  before  the  eighth  day, 
because  the  type  of  baptism  was  ministered  in 
that  circumcision ;  he,  in  his  discourse,  supposing 
that  the  first  rite  was  a  direction  to  the  second, 
which  prevailed  with  him  so  far  as  to  believe  it  to 
limit  ever^^  circum.stance. 


356  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

And  not  only  this  type,  but  the  acts  of  Christ 
which  were  previous  to  the  institution  of  baptism, 
did  prepare  our  understanding  bj  sucli  impresses 
as  were  sufficient  to  produce  such  persuasion  in 
us,that  Christ  intended  this  ministry  for  the  actual 
advantage  of  infants  as  well  as  of  persons  of  un- 
derstanding. For  Christ  commanded  that  child- 
ren should  be  brought  unto  him,  he  took  them  in 
his  arms,  he  imposed  hands  on  them  and  blessed 
them;  and,  without  questions,  did, by  such  acts  of 
favor,  consign  his  love  to  them,  and  them  to  a 
capacity  of  an  eternal  participation  of  it.  And 
possibly  the  invitation  which  Christ  made  to  all  to 
come  to  him,  all  them  that  are  lieavy  laden,  did, 
in  its  proportion,  concern  iniVjits  as  much  as 
others,  if  they  be  guilty  of  original  sin,  and  if  that 
sin  be  a  burthen,  and  presses  them  to  spiritual 
danger  or  inconvenience.  And  it  is  all  the  reason 
of  the  world,  since  the  grace  of  Christ  is  as  large 
as  the  prevarication  of  Adam,  all  they  who  are 
made  guilty  by  the  first  Adam  should  be  cleansed 
by  the  second.  But  as  they  are  guilty  by  another 
man's  act,  so  they  should  be  brought  to  the  font  to 
be  purified  by  others,  there  being  the  same  pro- 
portion of  reason,  that  by  others'  acts  they  should 
be  relieved  who  were  in  danger  of  perishing  by 
the  act  of  others.  And  therefore  St.  Austin 
argues  excellently  to  this  purpose :  "  The  church 
furnishes  them  with  the  feet  of  others  that  they 
may  come,  with  the  heart  of  others  that  they  may 
believe,  with  the  tongue  of  others  that  they  may- 
make  confession  ;  in  order  that,  as  they  are  dis- 
eased in  consequence  of  another's  sin,  so  being 
made  whole  by  another's  confession,  they  may 
be  saved."*     And  Justin  Martyr  :  '*The  children 

*  Accommodat  illis  mater  ecclesia  ajiornm  pedes,  ut  veui- 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  357 

of  pious  parents  are  accounted  worthy  of  baptism, 
through  the  faith  of  those  who  bring  them  to  be 
baptized."  •• 

But  whether  they  have  original  sin  or  no,  yet 
take  them  in  their  state  as  they  are  by  nature,  they 
cannot  go  to  God,  or  attain  to  eternity,  to  which 
they  were  intended  in  their  first  being  and  crea- 
tion ;  and  therefore,  much  less  since  their  naturals 
are  impaired  by  the  curse  on  human  nature  procured 
by  Adam's  prevarication.  And  if  a  natural  agent 
cannot  in  its  state  of  nature  attain  to  heaven, 
which  is  a  supernatural  end,  much  less  when  it  is 
loaden  with  accidental  and  grievous  impedin.snts. 
Now,  then,  since  the  only  way  revealed  to  us 
of  acquiring  heaven  is  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
first  inlet  into  Christianity  and  access  to  him  is 
by  baptism,  as  appears  by  the  perpetual  analogy  of 
the  New  Testament,  -either  infants  are  not  persons 
capable  of  that  end  which  is  the  perfection  of  hu- 
man nature,  and  to  which  the  soul  of  man,  in  its 
being  made  immortal,  was  essentially  designed, 
and  so  are  miserable  and  deficient  from  the  end  of 
humanity,  if  they  die  before  the  use  of  reason ;  or 
else  they  must  be  brought  to  Christ  by  the  church 
doors,  that  is,  by  the  font  and  waters  of  baptism. 

And,  in  reason,  it  seems  more  pregnant  and 
plausible,  that  infants,  rather  than  men  of  under- 
standing should  be  baptized.  For  since  the 
efficacy  of  the  sacraments  depends  upon  divine 
institution  and  immediate  benediction,  and  that 

ant;  aliorum cor, ut  credant ;  aliorum  lingiiain,utfateantur: 
ut  quoniam,  quod  aec;ri  sunt,  alio  peccante  praegravantur,  sic 
cum  sani  fiant  alio  confitente  salventur." — Serm.  x.  de 
Verb.  Apost. 

*  'A^touvTctt  S'i  roov  via,  tou  ^ATrTia-fxtLTo^  etyA^m  ta  f^ipi^pn  th 
■riiTTii  Tcov  Trpoa-^ipovraiv  uvrct.  Tie  (irtTrTia-ix'XTi. — Resp.  ad 
Orthodoxos. 


558  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  J  produce  their  effects  independently  upon  man, 
in  them  that  do  not  hinder  their  operation ;  since 
infants  cannot  by  any  act  of  their  own  promote  the 
hope  of  their  own  salvation,  which  men  of  reason 
and  choice  may,  by  acts  of  virtue  and  election ;  it 
is  more  agreeable  to  the  goodness  of  God,  the 
honor  and  excellency  of  the  sacrament,  and  the 
necessity  of  its  institution,  that  it  should  in  infants 
supply  the  want  of  human  acts  and  free  obedience. 
Which  the  very  thing  itself  seems  to  say  it  does, 
because  its  effect  is  from  God,  and  requires  nothing 
on  man's  part  but  that  its  efficacy  be  not  hindered : 
and  then  in  infants  the  disposition  is  equal,  and 
the  necessity  more ;  they  cannot  object  to  other's 
acts,  and  by  the  same  reason  cannot  do  other's 
acts,  which,  without  the  sacraments,  do  advantage 
us  towards  our  hopes  of  heaven ;  and  therefore 
have  more  need  to  be  supplied  by  an  act  and  an 
institution  divine  and  supernatural. 

And  this  is  not  only  necessary  in  respect  of  the 
condition  of  infants'  incapacity  to  do  acts  of  grace, 
but  also  in  obedience  to  divine  precept.  For  Christ 
made  a  law,  whose  sanction  is  with  an  exclusive 
negative  to  them  that  are  not  baptize<l :  "  Unless  a 
man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  shall 
not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  If  then 
infants  have  a  capacity  of  being  co-heirs  with 
Christ,  in  the  kingdom  of  his  Father,  as  Christ 
affirms  they  have,  by  saying,  ^'  For  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"  then  there  is  a  necessitj^  that 
they  should  be  brought  to  baptism,  there  being  an 
absolute  exclusion  of  all  persons  unbaptized,  and 
all  persons  not  spiritual,  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

But,  indeed,  it  is  a  destruction  of  all  the  hopes 
and  happiness  of  infants,  a  denying  to  them  an 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  359 

exemption  from  the  final  condition  of  beasts  and 
insects,  or  else  a  designing  of  them  to  a  worse 
misery,  to  say  that  God  hath  not  appointed  some 
external  or  internal  means  of  bringing  them  to  an 
eternal  happiness.  Internal  they  have  none;  for 
grace  being  an  improvement,  and  heightening  the 
faculties  of  nature,  in, order  to  a  heightened  and 
supernatural  end,  grace  hath  no  influence  or  effi- 
cacy upon  their  faculties,  who  can  do  no  natural 
acts  of  understanding ;  and  if  there  be  no  external 
means,  then  they  are  destitute  of  all  hopes  and 
possibilities  of  salvation. 

But,  thanks  be  to  God,  he  hath  provided  better, 
and  told  us  accordingly ,  for  he  hath  made  a  pro- 
mise of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  infants  as  well  as  to 
men.  "The  promise  is  made  to  you  and  to  your 
children,"  said  St.  Peter ;  '*the  promise  of  the  Fa- 
ther," the  promise  that  he  would  send  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Now,  if  you  ask  hov/  this  promise  shall 
be  conveyed  to  our  children,  we  have  an  express 
out  of  the  same  sermon  of  St.  Peter  :*  "  Be  baptized, 
and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost;" 
so  that,  because  the  Holy  Ghost  is  promised,  and 
baptism  is  the  means  of  receiving  the  promise, 
therefore  baptism  pertains  to  them  to  whom  the 
promise,  which  is  the  efiect  of  baptism,  does  ap- 
pertain. And  that  we  may  not  think  this  argument 
is  fallible,  or  of  human  collection,  deserve  that  it 
is  the  argument  of  the  same  apostles  in  express 
terms;  for  in  the  case  of  Cornelius  and  his  family, 
he  justified  his  proceeding  by  this  very  medium  ; 
"  Shall  we  deny  baptism  to  them  who  have  received 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as  we .?"  Which 
discourse,  if  it  be  reduced  to  form  of  argument, 
says  this :  they  that  are  capable  of  the  same  grace 
*  Acts,  ii.  38,  39. 


S60  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

are  receptive  of  the  same  sign;  but  then  (to  make 
the  syllogism  up  with  an  assumption  proper  to  our 
present  purpose)  infants  are  capable  of  the  same 
grace,  that  is,  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (for  the  promise 
is  made  to  our  children  as  well  as  to  us,  and  St. 
Paul  says,  the  children  of  believing  parents  are 
holy  and  therefore  have  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  is 
the  fountain  of  holiness  and  sanctification),  there- 
fore they  are  to  receive  the  sign  and  the  seal  of  it ; 
that  is  the  sacrament  of  baptism. 

And  indeed,  since  God  entered  a  covenant  with 
the  Jews,  which  did  also  actually  involve  their 
children,  and  gave  them  a  sign  to  establish  the 
covenant  and  its  appendant  promise,  eitlier  God 
does  not  so  much  love  the  church  as  he  did  the 
synagogue,  and  the  mercies  of  the  gospel  are  more 
restrained  than  the  mercies  of  the  law,  God  having 
made  a  covenant  with  the  infants  of  Israel,  and 
none  with  the  children  of  Christian  parents ;  or  if 
he  hath,  yet  we  want  the  comfort  of  its  consign- 
ation ;  and,  unless  our  children  are  to  be  baptized, 
and  so  entitled  to  the  promises  of  the  nev/  covenant, 
as  the  Jewish  babes  were  by  circumxision,  this 
mercy  which  appertains  to  infants  is  so  secret,  and 
undeclared,  and  unconsigned,  that  we  want  much 
of  that  mercy  and  outward  testimony  which  gave 
them  comfort  and  assurance. 

And  in  proportion  to  these  precepts  and  revela- 
tions was  the  practice  apostolical;  for  they  (to 
whom  Christ  gave  in  precept  to  make  disciples  all 
nations,  baptizing  them,  and  knew  that  nations 
without  children  never  were,  and  that  therefore 
they  were  passively  concerned  in  that  commission), 
baptized  whole  families,  particularly  that  of  Ste- 
phanus,  and  divers  others,  in  which  it  is  more  than 
probable  there  were  some  minors,  if  not  sucking 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  361 

babes.  And  this  practice  did  descend  upon  tlie 
church  in  after  ages  by  tradition  apostolical.  Of 
this  we  have  sufficient  testimony  from  Origen : — 
*^  The  church  has  received  it  by  tradition  from  the 
apostles  to  admit  little  children  to  the  rite  of 
baptism''*  and  St.  Austin  : — "  This  practice  the 
church  has  received  upon  the  faith  of  the  fathers."! 
And  generally  all  writers  (as  Calvin  says)  affirm 
the  same  thing,  for  "  there  is  no  writer  so  ancient 
as  not  to  refer  its  origin  to  the  apostolic  age.'*± 
From  hence  the  conclusion  is,  that  infants  ought 
to  be  baptized,  that  it  is  simply  necessary,  that 
they  who  deny  it  are  heretics,  and  such  are  not  to 
be  endured,  because  they  deny  to  infants  hopes,  and 
take  away  the  possibility  of  their  salvation,  which 
is  revealed  to  us  on  no  other  condition  of  which 
they  are  capable  but  baptism.  For  by  the  insinua- 
tion of  the  type,  by  the  action  of  Christ,  by  the 
title  infants  have  to  heaven,  by  the  precept  of  the 
gospel,  by  the  energy  of  the  j)romise,  by  the  rea- 
sonableness of  the  thing,  by  the  infinite  necessity 
on  the  infants'  part,  by  the  practice  apostolical,  by 
their  tradition,  and  the  universal  practice  of  the 
church ;  by  all  these,  God  and  good  people  pro- 
claim the  lawfulness,  the  conveniency,  and  the 
necessity  of  infants'  baptism. 

To  all  this,  the  Anabaptist  gives  a  soft  and 
gentle  answer,  that  it  is  a  goodly  harangue,  which 
upon  strict  examination  will  come  to  nothing;  that 
it  pretends  fairly  and  signifies  little;  that  some  of 

*  •'  Pro  hoe  ecclesia  ab  apostolis  traditionem  accepit,  etiam 
parvulis  baptismum  dare." — In  Rom.  vi.  tom.  ii.  p.  543. 

t  "Hoc  ecclesia  a  majorum  fide  percepit." — Serm.  x.  de 
Verb.  Apost.  c.  2. 

X  "  NuUus  est  scriptor  tarn  vetustus,  qui  non  ejus  originem 
ad  apostolorum  sseculum  procerto  referat." — 4  Instit.  cap.  16, 
sect.  8. 

31 


362  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

these  allegations  are  false,  some  impertinent,  and 
all  the  rest  insufficient. 

For  the  argument  from  circumcision  is  invalid 
upon  infinite  considerations : — figures  and  types 
prove  nothing,  unless  a  commandment  go  along 
with  them,  or  some  express  to  signify  such  to  be 
their  purpose.  For  the  deluge  of  waters  and  the 
ark  of  Noah  were  a  figure  of  baptism,  said  Peter; 
and  if,  therefore,  the  circumstances  of  one  should 
be  drawn  to  the  other,  we  should  make  baptism  a 
prodigy  rather  than  a  rite.  The  paschal  lamb  was 
a  type  of  the  eucharist,  which  succeeds  the  other 
as  baptism  does  to  circumcision ;  but  because  there 
was,  in  the  manducation  of  the  paschal  lamb,  no 
prescription  of  sacramental  drink,  shall  we  thence 
conclude  that  the  eucharist  is  to  be  ministered 
but  in  one  kind  ?  And  even  in  the  very  instance 
of  this  argument,  supposing  a  correspondence  of 
analogy  between  circumcision  and  baptism,  yet 
there  is  no  correspondence  of  identity;  for  al- 
though it  were  granted  that  both  of  them  did  con- 
sign the  covenant  of  faith,  yet  there  is  nothing  in 
the  circumstance  of  children's  being  circumcised, 
that  so  concerns  that  mystery  but  that  it  might 
very  well  be  given  to  children,  and  yet  baptism 
only  to  men  of  reason ;  because  circumcision  left  a 
character  in  the  flesh,  which  being  imprinted  upon 
infants  did  its  work  to  them  when  they  came  to 
age ;  and  such  a  character  was  necessary,  because 
there  was  no  word  added  to  the  sign ;  but  baptism 
imprints  nothing  that  remains  on  the  body,  and  if 
it  leaves  a  character  at  all,  it  is  upon  the  soul,  to 
which  also  the  word  is  added,  which  is  as  much  a 
part  of  the  sacrament  as  the  sign  itself  is.  For 
both  which  reasons,  it  is  i:equisite  that  the  persons 
baptized  should  be  capable  of  reason,  that  they  may 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING,  363 

be  capable  both  of  the  word  of  the  sacrament  and 
the  impress  made  upon  the  spirit.  Since,  therefore, 
the  reason  of  this  parity  does  wholly  fail,  there  is 
nothing  left  to  infer  a  necessity  of  complying  in  this 
circumstance  of  age  any  more  than  in  the  other 
annexes  of  the  type ;  and  the  case  is  clear  in  the 
bishop's  question  to  Cyprian  ;*  for  why  shall  not 
infants  be  baptized  just  upon  the  eighth  day,  as 
well  as  circumcised  ?  If  the  correspondence  of  the 
rites  be  an  argument  to  infer  one  circumstance 
which  is  impertinent  and  accidental  to  the  mys- 
teriousness  of  the  rite,  why  shall  it  not  infer  all  r 
And  then,  also,  females  must  not  be  baptized, 
because  they  were  not  circumcised.  But  it  were 
more  proper,  if  we  would  understand  it  right,  to 
prosecute  the  analogy  from  the  type  to  the  anti- 
type, by  way  of  letter,  and  spirit,  and  signification ; 
and  as  circumcision  figures  baptism,  so  also  the 
adjuncts  of  the  circumcision  shall  signify  some- 
thing spiritual  in  the  adherencies  of  baptism ;  and 
therefore,  as  infants  were  circumcised,  so  spiritual 
infants  shall  be  baptized,  which  is  spiritual  circum- 
cision ;  for  therefore  babes  had  the  ministry  of  the 
type,  to  signify  that  we  must,  when  we  give  our 
names  to  Christ,  become  vitTnoi  iv  7rone,t%»  children 
in  malice ;  **  for  unless  you  become  like  one  of  these 
little  ones,  you  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  said  our  blessed  Savior ;  and  then  the 
type  is  made  complete.  And  this  seems  to  have 
been  the  sense  of  the  primitive  church ;  for  in  the 
age  next  to  the  apostles  they  gave  to  all  baptized 
persons  milk  and  honey,  to  represent  to  them  their 
duty,  that  though  in  age  and  understanding  they 
were  men,  yet  they  were  babes  in  Christ,  and 

•  Lib.  ill.  Epist.  8.  ad  Fiduin 


364  THE    SACRED    CLASSICSo 

children  in  malice.  But  to  infer  the  sense  of  the 
paedobaptists  is  so  weak  a  manner  of  arguing, 
that  Austin,  whose  device  it  was  (and  men  use  to 
be  ill  love  with  their  own  fancies),  at  the  most 
pretended  it  but  as  probable  and  a  mere  conjecture. 

And  as  ill  success  will  thej  have  with  the  other 
arguments  as  with  this ;  for,  from  the  action  of 
Christ's  blessing  infants,  to  infer  that  they  are  to 
be  baptized,  proves  nothing  so  much  as  that  there 
is  great  want  of  better  arguments.  The  conclusion 
wouki  be  with  more  probability  derived  thus  :— 
Christ  blessed  children,  and  so  dismissed  them, 
but  baptized  them  not;  therefore  infants  are  not  to 
be  baptized ;  but  let  this  be  as  weak  as  its  enemy, 
yet  that  Christ  did  not  baptize  them  is  an  argu- 
ment sufficient  that  Christ  hath  other  ways  of 
bringing  them  to  heaven  than  by  baptism ;  he 
passed  his  act  of  grace  upon  them  by  benediction 
and  imposition  of  hands. 

And  therefore,  although  neither  infants  nor  any 
man  by  nature  can  attain  to  a  supernatural  end 
without  the  addition  of  some  instrument  or  means 
of  God's  appointing,  ordinarily  and  regularly,  jei 
where  God  hath  not  appointed  a  rule  nor  an  order, 
as  in  the  case  of  infants  we  contend  he  hath  not, 
the  argument  is  invalid.  And  as  we  are  sure  that 
God  hath  not  commanded  infants  to  be  baptized, 
so  we  are  sure  God  will  do  them  no  injustice,  nor 
damn  them  for  what  they  cannot  help. 

And  therefore  let  them  be  pressed  with  all  the 
inconveniences  that  are  consequent  to  original  sin, 
yet  either  it  will  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  in- 
fants, so  as  to  be  sufficient  to  condemn  them,  or 
if  it  could,  yet  the  mercy  and  absolute  goodness 
of  God  will  secure  them,  if  he  takes  them  away 
before  they  can  glorify  him  with  a  free  obedience. 


THE   LIBERTY  OF   PROPHESYING.  365 

*'  Why  is  innocent  infancy  to  be  anxious  for  the 
remission  of  sins  ?"*  was  the  question  of  Ter- 
tullian  {lib.  de  Bapt.)  ?  lie  knew  no  such  danger 
from  their  original  guilt,  as  to  drive  them  to  a 
laver  of  which,  in  tliat  age  of  innocence,  they  had 
no  need,  as  he  conceived.  And  therefore  there 
is  no  necessity  of  flying  to  the  help  of  others,  for 
tongue,  and  heart,  and  faith,  and  predispositions 
to  baptism ;  for  what  need  all  this  stir  ?  As  in- 
fants without  their  own  account,  without  any  act 
of  their  own,  and  without  any  exterior  solemnity', 
contracted  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin,  and  so  are 
liable  to  all  the  punishment  which  can  with  jus- 
tice descend  upon  his  posterity,  who  are  personally 
innocent ;  so  infants  shall  be  restored  without  any 
solemnity  or  act  of  their  own,  or  of  any  other 
men  for  them,  by  the  second  Adam,  by  the  re- 
demption of  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  righteousness 
and  mercies,  applied  either  immediately,  or  how 
or  when  he  shall  be  pleased  to  appoint.  And  so 
St.  Austin's  argument  will  come  to  nothing,  with- 
out any  need  of  godfathers,  or  the  faith  of  any 
body  else.  And  it  is  too  narrow  a  conception  of 
God  Almighty,  because  he  hath  tied  us  to  the 
observation  of  the  ceremonies  of  his  own  institu- 
tion, that  therefore  he  hath  tied  himself  to  it. 
Many  thousand  ways  there  are  by  which  God  can 
bring  any  reasonable  soul  to  himself;  but  nothing 
is  more  unreasonable,  than  because  he  hath  tied 
all  men  of  years  and  discretion  to  this  way,  there- 
fore we,  of  our  own  heads,  shall  carry  infants  to 
him  that  way  without  his  direction :  the  conceit  is 
poor  and  low,  and  the  action  consequent  to  it  is 
too  bold  and  venturous.    **  I  have  nothing  to  do 

*  "  Quid  ergo  festinat  innocens  ajtas  ad  remissionem  pec- 
catorum." 

31* 


366  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

in  religion  but  with  myself  and  my  household."** 
Let  him  do  what  he  please  to  infants,  we  must 
not. 

Only  this  is  certain,  that  God  hath  as  great  care 
of  infants  as  of  others ;  and  because  they  have  no 
capacity  of  doing  such  acts  as  may  be  in  order  to 
acquiring  salvation,  God  will,  by  his  own  im- 
mediate mercy,  bring  them  thither  where  he  hath 
intended  them ;  but  to  say  that  therefore  he  will 
do  it  by  an  external  act  and  ministry,  and  that 
confined  to  a  particular,  viz.  this  rite  and  no  other, 
is  no  good  argument,  unless  God  could  not  do  it 
without  such  means,  or  that  he  had  said  he  would 
not.  And  why  cannot  God  as  well  do  his  mer- 
cies to  infants  now  immediately^  as  he  did  before 
the  institution  either  of  circumcision  or  baptism  .^ 

However,  there  is  no  danger  that  infants  should 
perish  for  want  of  this  external  ministry,  much 
less  for  prevaricating  Christ's  precept  of  •  Except 
a  man  be  born  again,'  &c.  For,  first,  the  water 
and  the  Spirit  in  this  place  signify  the  same  thing; 
and  by  water  is  meant  the  effect  of  the  Spirit, 
cleansing  and  purifying  the  soul,  as  appears  in  its 
parallel  place  of  Christ  baptizing  with  the  Spirit 
and  with  fire.  For  although  this  was  literally 
fulfilled  in  Pentecost,  jet  morally  there  is  more 
in  it,  for  it  is  the  sign  of  the  effect  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  his  productions  upon  the  soul ;  and  it 
was  an  excellency  of  our  blessed  Savior's  office, 
that  he  baptizes  all  that  come  to  him  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire ;  for  so  St.  John,  pre- 
ferring Christ''s  mission  and  office  before  his  own. 
tells  the  Jews,  not  Christ's  disciples,  that  Chris-: 
shall  baptize  them  with  fire  and  the  Holy  Spirit ; 

*  "  Mysterium  meum  raihi  e  filiis  domiis  mes." 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  367 

that  is,  '  all  that  come  to  him,'  as  John  the  Bap- 
tist did  with  water,  for  so  lies  the  antitliesis :  and 
you  may  as  well  conclude  that  infants  must  also 
pass  tlu'ough  the  fire  as  through  the  water.  And 
that  we  may  not  think  this  a  trick  to  elude  the 
pressure  of  this  place,  Peter  says  the  same  thing ; 
for  when  he  had  said  that  baptism  saves  us,  he 
adds,  by  way  of  explication,  '  not  the  washing  of 
the  flesh,  but  the  confidence  of  a  good  conscience 
towards  God ;'  plainly  saying,  that  it  is  not  water, 
or  the  purifying  of  the  body,  but  the  cleansing  of 
the  spirit,  that  does  that  which  is  supposed  to  be 
the  effect  of  baptism;  and  if  our  Savior's  exclu- 
sive negative  be  expounded  by  analogy  to  this  of 
Peter,  as  certainly  the  other  parallel  instance 
must,  and  this  may,  then  it  will  be  so  far  from 
proving  the  necessity  of  infants'  baptism,  that  it 
can  conclude  for  no  man  that  he  is  obliged  to  the 
rite ;  and  the  doctrine  of  the  baptism  is  only  to 
derive  from  the  very  words  of  institution,  and  not 
be  forced  from  words  which  were  spoken  before 
it  was  ordained.  But  to  let  pass  this  advantage, 
and  to  suppose  it  meant  of  external  baptism,  yet 
this  no  more  infers  a  necessity  of  infants'  baptism, 
than  the  other  words  of  Christ  infer  a  necessity 
to  give  them  the  holy  communion :  '  Except  ye 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  son  of  man,  and  drink  his 
blood,  ye  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.' 
And  yet  we  do  not  think  these  words  sufficient 
argument  to  communicate  them ;  if  men,  there- 
fore, will  do  us  justice,  either  let  them  give  both 
sacraments  to  infants,  as  some  ages  of  the  church 
did,  or  neither.  For  the  wit  of  man  is  not  able  to 
show  a  disparity  in  the  sanction,  or  in  the  energy 
of  its  expression.  And  therefore  they  were  honest 
that  understood  the  obligation  to  be  parallel,  and 


368  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

performed  it  accordingly;  and  yet  because  we 
say  they  were  deceived  in  one  instance,  and  yet 
the  obligation  (all  the  world  cannot  reasonably 
say  but)  is  the  same,  they  are  as  honest  and  as 
reasonable  that  do  neither.  And  since  the  ancient 
church  did  with  an  equal  opinion  of  necessity 
give  them  the  communion,  and  yet  men  now-a- 
days  do  not,  why  shall  men  be  more  burthened 
with  a  prejudice  and  a  name  of  obloquy  for  not 
giving  the  infants  one  sacrament,  more  than  they 
are  disliked  for  not  affording  them  the  other  ?  If 
Anabaptist  shall  be  a  name  of  disgrace,  why  shall 
not  some  other  name  be  invented  for  them  that 
deny  to  communicate  infants,  which  shall  be 
equally  disgraceful,  or  else  both  the  opinions  sig- 
nified by  such  names,  be  accounted  no  disparage- 
ment, but  receive  their  estimate  according  to  their 
truth  ? 

Of  which  truth,  since  we  are  now  taking  ac- 
count from  pretences  of  Scripture,  it  is  consider- 
able that  the  discourse  of  St.  Peter,  which  is  pre- 
tended for  the  entitling  infants  to  the  promise  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  consequence  to  baptism, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  its  instrument  and  con- 
veyance, is  wholly  a  fancy,  and  hath  in  it  nothing 
of  certainty  or  demonstration,  and  not  much  pro- 
bability. For  besides  that  the  thing  itself  is  un- 
reasonable, and  the  Holy  Ghost  works  by  the 
heightening  and  improving  our  natural  faculties, 
and  therefore  is  a  promise  that  so  concerns  them 
as  they  are  reasonable  creatures,  and  may  have  a 
title  to  it  in  proportion  to  their  nature,  but  no 
possession  or  reception  of  it  till  their  faculties 
come  into  act;  besides  this, I  say, the  words  men- 
tioned in  St.  Peter's  sermon  (which  are  the  only 
record  of  the  promise)  are  interpreted  upon  a 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  369 

weak  mistake.  "  The  promise  belongs  to  you  and 
to  joiiv  children,"  therefore  infants  are  actually 
receptive  of  it  in  that  capacity.  That  is  the  argu- 
ment, but  the  reason  of  it  is  not  yet  discovered, 
nor  ever  will ;  for  "  to  you  and  your  children,"  is 
to  you  and  your  posterity,  to  you  and  your  chil- 
dren when  they  are  of  the  same  capacity  in  which 
you  are  effectually  receptive  of  the  promise ;  but 
he  that,  whenever  the  word  children  is  used  in 
Scripture^  shall  by  children  understand  infants, 
must  needs  believe  that  in  all  Israel  there  were 
no  men,  but  all  were  infants ;  and  if  that  had 
been  true  it  had  been  the  greater  wonder  they 
should  overcome  the  Anakims,  and  beat  the  king 
of  Moab,  and  march  so  far,  and  discourse  so  well, 
for  they  were  all  called  the  children  of  Israel. 

And  for  the  allegation  of  St.  Paul,  that  infants 
are  holy  if  their  parents  be  faithful,  it  signifies 
nothing  but  that  they  are  holy  by  designation, 
just  as  Jeremiah  and  John  Baptist  were  sanctified 
in  their  mother's  womb,  that  is,  they  were  ap- 
pointed and  designed  for  holy  ministries,  but  had 
not  received  the  promise  of  the  Father — the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost— for  all  that  sanctification ; 
and  just  so  the  children  of  Christian  parents  are 
sanctified :  that  is,  designed  to  the  service  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  future  participation  of  the 
promises. 

And  as  the  promise  appertains  not  (for  aught 
appears)  to  infants  in  that  capacity  and  consist- 
ence, but  only  by  the  title  of  their  being  reason- 
able creatures,  and  when  they  come  to  that  act  of 
which  by  nature  they  have  the  faculty,  so  if  it  did, 
yet  baptism  is  not  the  means  of  conveying  the 
Holy  Ghost.  For  that  which  Peter  says,  "  Be 
baptized  and  ye  shall  receive  the  Holy  Ghost," 


370  THE   SA6RED   CLASSICS. 

signifies  no  more  than  this :  first,  be  baptized,  and 
then  by  imposition  of  the  apostles'  hands  (which 
was  another  mjsterj  and  rite)  ye  shall  receive 
the  promise  of  the  Father.  And  this  is  nothing 
but  an  insinuation  of  the  rite  of  confirmation,  as 
is  to  this  sense  expounded  by  divers  ancient 
authors ;  and  in  ordinary  ministry  the  effect  of  it 
is  not  bestowed  upon  any  unbaptized  persons,  for 
it  is  in  order  next  after  baptism,  and  upon  this 
ground  Peter's  argument  in  the  case  of  Cornelius 
was  concluding  enough,  a  majori  ad  minus  (from 
the  greater  to  the  less).  Thus  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  bestowed  upon  him  and  his  family,  which 
gift,  by  ordinary  ministry,  was  consequent  to  bap- 
tism (not  as  the  effect  is  to  the  cause  or  to  the 
proper  instrument,  but  as  a  consequent  is  to  an 
antecedent,  in  a  chain  of  causes  accidentally  and 
by  positive  institution  depending  upon  each  other). 
God  by  that  miracle  did  give  testimony,  that  the 
persons  of  the  men  were  in  great  dispositions 
towards  heaven,  and  therefore  were  to  be  admit- 
ted to  those  rites  which  are  the  ordinary  inlets 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  then,  from 
hence  to  argue  that  wherever  there  is  a  capacity 
of  receiving  the  same  grace  there  also  the  same 
sign  is  to  be  ministered,  and  from  hence  to  infer 
pasdobaptism,  is  an  argument  very  fallacious  upon 
several  grounds.  First,  because  baptism  is  not 
the  sign  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  by  another  mys- 
tery it  was  conveyed  ordinarily,  and  extraordi- 
narily it  was  conveyed  independently  from  any 
mystery ;  and  so  the  argument  goes  upon  a  wrong 
supposition.  Secondly,  if  the  supposition  were 
true,  the  proposition  built  upon  it  is  false;  for 
they  that  are  capable  of  the  same  grace  are  not 
always   capable  of  the   same   sign;  for  women, 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  371 

^nder  the  law  of  Moses,  although  they  were 
capable  of  the  righteousness  of  faith,  yet  they 
were  not  capable  of  the  sign  of  circumcision. 
For  God  does  not  always  convey  his  graces  in  the 
same  manner,  but  to  some  mediately,  to  others 
immediately ;  and  there  is  no  better  instance  in 
the  world  of  it  than  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
(which  is  the  thing  now  instanced  in  this  contest- 
ation) ;  for  it  is  certain  in  Scripture,  that  it  was 
ordinarily  given  by  imposition  of  hands,  and  that 
after  baptism  (and  when  this  came  into  an  ordi- 
nary ministry  it  was  called  by  the  ancient  church 
chrism,  or  confirmation) ;  but  yet  it  was  given 
sometimes  without  imposition  of  hands,  as  at 
Pentecost  and  to  the  family  of  Cornelius;  some- 
times before  baptism,  sometimes  after,  sometimes 
in  conjunction  with  it. 

And  after  all  this,  lest  these  arguments  should 
not  ascertain  their  cause,  they  fall  on  complaining 
against  God,  and  will  not  be  content  with  God 
unless  they  may  baptize  their  children,  but  take 
exceptions  that  God  did  more  for  the  children  of 
the  Jews.  But  why  so  ?  Because  God  made  a 
covenant  with  tlieir  children  actually  as  infants, 
and  consigned  it  by  circumcision.  AVell,  so  he 
did  with  our  children  too  in  their  proportion.  He 
made  a  covenant  of  spiritual  promises  on  liis  part, 
and  spiritual  and  real  services  on  ours;  and  this 
pertains  to  children  when  they  are  capable,  but 
made  with  tliem  as  soon  as  they  are  alive,  and  yet 
not  so  as  with  the  Jews'  babes ;  for  as  their  rite 
consigned  them  actually,  so  it  was  a  national  and 
temporal  blessing  and  covenant,  as  a  separation  of 
them  from  the  portion  of  the  nations,  a  marking 
them  for  a  peculiar  people  (and  therefore,  while 
they  were  in  the  wilderness,  and  separate  from 


372  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  commixture  of  all  people,  they  were  not  all 
circumcised),  but  as  that  rite  did  seal  the  righteous- 
ness of  faith,  so  bj  virtue  of  its  adherency  and 
remanency  in  their  flesh,  it  did  that  work  when 
the  children  came  to  age.  But  in  Christian  infants 
the  case  is  otherwise ;  for  the  new  covenant  being 
established  upon  better  promises,  is  not  only  to 
better  purposes,  but  also  in  distinct  manner  to  be 
understood ;  when  their  spirits  are  as  receptive 
of  a  spiritual  act  or  impress  as  the  bodies  of  Jew- 
ish children  were  of  the  sign  of  circumcision,  then 
it  is  to  be  consigned :  but  this  business  is  quickly 
at  an  end,  by  saying  that  God  hath  done  no  less 
for  ours  than  for  their  children ;  for  he  will  do  the 
mercies  of  a  Father  and  Creator  to  them,  and  he 
did  no  more  to  the  other ;  but  he  hath  done  more 
to  ours,  for  he  hath  made  a  covenant  with  them, 
and  built  it  upon  promises  of  the  greatest  concern- 
ment; he  ditl  not  so  to  them.  But  then,  for  the 
other  part,  which  is  the  main  of  the  argument,  that 
unless  this  mercy  be  consigned  by  baptism,  as 
good  not  at  all  in  respect  of  us,  because  we  want 
the  comfort  of  it;  this  is  the  greatest  vanity  in 
the  world ;  for  when  God  hath  made  promise  per- 
taining also  to  our  children  (for  so  our  adversaries 
contend,  and  we  also  ackno vvdedge  in  its  true 
sense),  shall  not  this  promise,  this  word  of  God, 
be  of  sufficient  truth,  certainty,  and  efficacy,  to 
cause  comfort,  unless  we  tempt  God,  and  require 
a  sign  of  him  ^  May  not  Christ  say  to  these  men 
as  sometime  to  the  Jews,  *  a  wicked  and  adulterous 
generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,  but  no  sign  shall 
be  given  unto  it  ?'  But  the  truth  is,  this  argument 
is  nothing  but  a  direct  quarreling  with  God  Al- 
mighty. 

Now,  since  there  is  no  strength  in  the  doctrinal 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  373 

part,  the  practice  and  precedents  apostolical  and 
ecclesiastical  will  be  of  less  concernment,  if  they 
were  true  as  is  pretended ;  because  actions  apos- 
tolical are  not  always  rules  for  ever.  It  might  be 
fit  for  them  to  do  it  pro  loco  et  tempore  (for  the 
place  and  time),  as  divers  others  of  their  institu- 
tions, but  jet  no  engagement  passed  thence  upon 
following  ages ;  for  it  might  be  convenient  at  that 
time,  in  the  new  spring  of  Christianity,  and  till 
they  had  engaged  a  considerable  party,  by  that 
means  to  make  them  parties  against  the  gentiles' 
superstition,  and  by  way  of  pre-occupation  to  as- 
certain them  to  their  own  sect  when  they  came  to 
be  men ;  or  for  some  other  reason  not  transmitted 
to  us,  because  the  question  of  fact  itself  is  not 
sufficiently  determined.  For  the  insinuation  of 
that  precept  of  baptizing  all  nations,  of  which 
children  certainly  are  a  part,  does  as  little  advan- 
tage as  any  of  the  rest,  because  other  parallel 
expressions  of  scripture  do  determine  and  ex- 
pound themselves  to  a  sense  that  includes  not  all 
persons  absolutely,  but  of  a  capable  condition,  as 
*  Worship  him  all  je  nations,  praise  him  all  ye 
people  of  the  earth,'  &c.  and  divers  more. 

As  for  the  conjecture  concerning  the  family  of 
Stephanus,  at  the  best  it  is  but  a  conjecture;  and 
besides  that,  it  is  not  proved  that  there  were  chil- 
dren in  the  family ;  yet  if  that  were  granted,  it 
follows  not  that  they  were  baptized,  because  by 
whole  families,  in  Scripture,  is  meant  all  persons 
of  reason  and  age  within  the  family.  For  it  is 
said  of  the  ruler  at  Capernaum,  that '  he  believed 
and  all  his  house.'  Now,  you  may  also  suppose 
that  in  his  house  were  little  babes— -that  is  likely 
enough— and  you  may  suppose  that  they  did  be- 
lieve too  before  they  could  understand,  but  that  is 


ij74  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

not  so  likely.  And  then  the  argument  from  bap- 
tizing of  Stephen's  household  may  be  allowed 
just  as  probable;  but  this  is  unmanlike  to  build 
upon  such  slight  airy  conjectures. 

But  tradition,  by  all  means,  must  supply  the 
place  of  Scripture,  and  there  is  pretended  a  tra- 
dition apostolical  that  infants  were  baptized :  but 
at  this  we  are  not  much  moved ;  for  we,  who  rely 
upon  the  written  word  of  God  as  sufficient  to  es- 
tablish all  true  religion,  do  not  value  the  allegation 
of  traditions ;  and  however  the  world  goes,  none 
of  the  reformed  churches  can  pretend  this  argu- 
ment against  this  opinion,  because  they  who  reject 
tradition  when  it  is  against  them,  must  not  pre- 
tend it  at  all  for  them.  But  if  we  should  allow 
the  topic  to  be  good,  jet  how  will  it  be  verified  ? 
for  so  far  as  it  can  yet  appear,  it  relies  wholly 
upon  the  testimony  of  Origen,  for  from  him  Austin 
had  it.  Now  a  tradition  apostolical,  if  it  be  not 
consigned  with  a  fuller  testimony  than  of  one  per- 
son, whom  all  after  ages  have  condemned  of  many 
errors,  will  obtain  so  little  reputation  amongst 
those  who  know  that  things  have  upon  greater  au- 
thority pretended  to  derive  from  the  apostles,  and 
yet  falsely,  that  it  will  be  a  great  argument  that 
he  is  credulous  and  weak  that  shall  be  determined 
by  so  weak  probation  in  matters  of  so  great  con- 
cernment. And  the  truth  of  the  business  is,  as 
there  was  no  command  of  Scripture  to  oblige 
children  to  the  susception  of  it,  so  the  necessity 
of  paedobaptism  was  not  determined  in  the  church 
till  in  the  eighth  age  after  Christ ;  but  in  the  year 
418,  in  the  Milevitan  council,  a  provincial  of  Af- 
rica, there  was  a  canon  made  for  psedobaptism  t — 
never  till  then !  I  grant  it  was  practised  in  Africa, 
before  that  time,  and  they  or  some  of  them  thought 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING. 


S7^ 


well  of  it ;  and  though  that  be  no  argument  for  us 
to  think  so,  yet  none  of  them  did  ever  before  pre- 
tend it  to  be  necessary,  none  to  have  been  a  pre- 
cept of  the  gospel.  St.  Austin  was  the  first  that 
ever  preached  it  to  be  absolutely  necessary,  and 
it  was  in  his  heat  and  anger  against  Pelagius,  who 
had  warmed  and  chafed  him  so  in  that  question 
that  it  made  him  innovate  in  other  doctrines,  pos- 
sibly of  more  concernment  than  this.  And  that 
although  this  was  practised  anciently  in  Africa, 
yet  that  it  was  without  an  opinion  of  necessity, 
and  not  often  there  nor  at  all  in  other  places,  we 
have  the  testimony  of  a  learned  paedobaptist, 
Ludovicus  Vives,  who  in  his  annotations  upon  St. 
Austin,  De  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  i.  c.  27,  affirms,  ''  that 
anciently  none  but  adults  were  baptized."* 

But,  besides  that  the  tradition  cannot  be  proved 
to  be  apostolical,  we  have  very  good  evidence  from 
antiquity,  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  primitive 
church  that  infants  ought  not  to  be  baptized;  and 
this  is  clear  in  the  sixth  canon  of  the  council  of 
Neocaesarea.  The  words  are  these :  "  A  woman 
with  child  may  be  baptized  when  she  please ;  for 
her  baptism  concerns  not  the  child."t  The  reason 
of  the  connexion  of  the  parts  of  that  canon  is  in 
the  following  words :  *'  because  every  one  in  that 
confession  is  to  give  a  demonstration  of  his  own 
choice  and  election :"  meaning  plainly,  that  if  the 
baptism  of  the  mother  did  also  pass  upon  the  child^ 
it  were  not  fit  for  a  pregnant  woman  to  receive 
baptism ;  because  in  that  sacrament  there  being  a 
confession  of  faith,  which  confession  supposes  un- 

*  "  Neminem  nisi  adultum  antiquitus  solere  baptizari." 

itoivccvii  n  TiKravo-dL  tcd  TMToyAVce  S'io.  ro  ftcctffTCu  iS'tav  tuv  vrfocU' 
(i^iv  niv  &  Til  ofAoXoyia.  (^ukvjtQxs. 


S7Q  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

derstanding  and  free  choice,  it  is  not  reasonable 
the  child  should  be  consigned  with  such  a  mystery, 
since  it  cannot  do  any  act  of  choice  or  under- 
standing. The  canon  speaks  reason,  and  it  inti- 
mates a  practice,  which  was  absolutely  universal 
in  the  church,  of  interrogating  the  catechumens 
concerning  the  articles  of  creed ;  which  is  one 
argument  that  either  they  did  not  admit  infants  to 
baptism,  or  that  they  did  prevaricate  egregiously 
in  asking  questions  of  them,  who  themselves  knew 
were  not  capable  of  giving  answer. 

And  to  supply  their  incapacity  by  the  answer 
of  a  godfather,  is  but  the  same  unreasonableness 
acted  with  a  worse  circumstance.*  And  there  is 
no  sensible  account  can  be  given  of  it ;  for  that 
which  some  imperfectly  murmur  concerning  sti- 
pulations civil,  performed  by  tutors  in  the  name  of 
their  pupils,  is  an  absolute  vanity.  For  what  if 
by  positive  constitution  of  the  Romans  such 
solemnities  of  law  are  required  in  all  stipulations, 
and  by  indulgence  are  permitted  in  the  case  of  a 
notable  benefit  accruing  to  minors,  must  God  be 
tied,  and  Christian  religion  transact  her  mysteries 
by  proportion  and  compliance  with  the  law  of  the 
Romans  ?  I  know  God  might,  if  he  would,  have 
appointed  godfathers  to  give  answer  in  behalf  of 
the  children,  and  to  be  fidejussors  for  them;  but 
we  cannot  find  any  authority  or  ground  that  he 
hath,  and  if  he  had,  then  it  is  to  be  supposed  he 
would  have  given  them  commission  to  have  trans- 
acted the  solemnity  with  better  circumstances, 
and   given   answers   with   more  truth.     For  the 

*  "Quid  ni  necesse  est  sponsores  etiam  periculo  ingeri, 
qui  et  ipsi  per  mortalitatein  destituere  promissiones  suas  pos- 
sint,  et  proventu  malag  indolis  falii  ?" — Franc.  Jiinivis  in  notis 
ad  Tertul.  lib.  de  Baptis.  ap.  18. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  377 

question  is  asked  of  believing  in  the  present. 
And  if  the  godfathers  answer  in  the  name  of  the 
child,  ''  I  do  believe,"  it  is  notorious  thej  speak 
false  and  ridiculously;  for  the  infant  is  not  capable 
of  believing;  and  if  he  were,  he  were  also  capable 
of  dissenting;  and  how  then  do  they  know  his 
mind?  And  therefore  Tertullian  gives  advice 
that  the  baptism  of  infants  should  be  deferred  till 
they  could  give  an  account  of  their  faith,*  and  the 
same  also  is  the  counsel  of  Gregory,!  bishop  of 
Nazianzum,  although  he  allows  them  to  hasten  it 
in  case  of  necessity ;  for  though  his  reason  taught 
him  what  was  fit,  yet.  he  was  overborne  with  the 
practice  and  opinion  of  his  age,  which  began  to 
bear  too  violently  upon  him ;  and  yet,  in  another 
place,  he  makes  mention  of  some  to  whom  baptism 
was  not  administered,  Jw  v>jOTOT«Tit,  "by  reason  of 
infancy."  To  which,  if  we  add  that  the  parents 
of  St.  Austin,  St.  Jerome,  and  St.  Ambrose,  al- 
though they  were  Christian,  yet  did  not  baptize 
their  children  before  the}'-  were  thirty  years  of  age, 
it  will  be  very  considerable  in  the  example,  and  of 
great  efficacy  for  destroying  the  supposed  necessity 
of  derivation  from  the  apostles. 

But,  however,  it  is  against  the  perpetual  ana- 
logy of  Christ's  doctrine  to  baptize  infants :  for 
besides  that  Christ  never  gave  any  precept  to  bap- 
tize them,  nor  ever  himself  nor  his  apostles  (that 
appears)  did  baptize  any  of  them,  all  that  either 
he  or  his  apostles  said  concerning  it,  requires 
such  previous  dispositions  to  baptism  of  which 
infants  are  not  capable,  and  these  are  faith  and  re- 

*  Lib.  de  Baptis.  prope  finem,  cap.  18.  "  Itaque  pro  per- 
sons cujusque  conditione  ac  dispositione,  etiam  aetate,  cunc- 
tatio  baptism!  utilior  est,  prcecipue  tamen  circa  parvulos. — 
Fiant  Chrisliani  cum  Christum  nosse  potueriiit." 

t  Oral.  xl.  quaest,  in  S.  Baptisma. 
32* 


378  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

pentance.  And  not  to  instance  in  those  innume- 
rable places  that  require  faith  before  this  sacrament, 
there  needs  no  more  but  this  one  saying  of  our 
blessed  Savior :  '  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned  ;'*  plainly  thus,  faith  and  baptism 
in  conjunction  will  bring  a  man  to  heaven ;  but  if 
he  have  not  faith,  baptism  shall  do  him  no  good. 
So  that  if  baptism  be  necessary  then  so  is  faith, 
and  much  more ;  for  want  of  faith  damns  abso- 
lutely— it  is  not  said  so  of  want  of  baptism.  Now, 
if  this  decretory  sentence  be  to  be  understood  of 
persons  of  age,  and  if  children  by  such  an  answer 
(which  indeed  is  reasonable  enough)  be  excused 
from  the  necessity  of  faith,  the  v/ant  of  which  regu- 
larly does  damn,  then  it  is  sottish  to  say  the  same 
incapacity  of  reason  and  faith  shall  not  excuse 
from  the  actual  susception  of  baptism,  which  is 
less  necessary,  and  to  which  faith  and  many  other 
acts  are  necessary  predispositions,  when  it  is  rea- 
sonably and  humanly  received.  The  conclusion 
is,  that  baptism  is  also  to  be  deferred  till  the  time 
of  faith;  and  whether  infants  have  faith  or  no  is  a 
question  to  be  disputed  by  persons  that  care  not 
how  much  they  say,  nor  how  little  they  prove. 

1.  Personal  and  actual  faith  they  have  none; 
for  they  have  no  acts  of  understanding;  and  be- 
sides, how  can  any  man  know  that  they  have,  since 
he  never  saw  any  sign  of  it,  neither  was  he  told  so 
by  any  one  that  could  tell?  2.  Some  say  they 
have  imputative  faith ;  but  then  so  let  the  sacra- 
ment be  too — that  is,  if  they  liave  the  parents' 
faith  or  the  church's,  then  so  let  baptism  be  im- 
puted also  by  derivation  from  them,  that  as  in 

*  Mark,  xvi. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  379 

their  mothers'  womb  and  while  they  hang  on  their 
breasts  they  live  upon  their  mothers'  nourishment, 
so  they  may  upon  the  baptism  of  their  pai'ents  or 
their  mother  the  church.  For  since  faith  is  neces- 
sary to  the  susception  of  baptism  (and  they  them- 
selves confess  it  by  striving  to  find  out  new  kinds 
of  faith  to  daub  the  matter  up),  such  as  the  faith 
is  such  must  be  the  sacrament;  for  there  is  no 
proportion  between  an  actual  sacrament  and  an 
imputative  faith,  this  being  in  immediate  and  ne- 
cessary order  to  that;  and  whatsoever  can  be  said 
to  take  off  from  the  necessity  of  actual  faith,  all 
that  and  much  more  may  be  said  to  excuse  from 
the  actual  susception  of  baptism.  3.  The  first  of 
these  devices  was  that  of  Luther  and  his  scholars, 
the  second  of  Calvin  and  his;  and  yet  there  is  a 
third  device  which  tlie  church  of  Rome  teaches, 
and  that  is,  that  infants  have  habitual  faith:  bur. 
wiio  told  them  so  ?  how  can  they  prove  it  ?  what 
revelation  or  reason  teaches  any  such  thing  ?  Are 
they  by  this  habit  so  much  as  disposed  to  an  actual 
belief,  without  a  nev/  master  ?  Can  an  infant  sent 
into  a  Mahometan  province  be  more  confident  for 
Christianity  when  he  comes  to  be  a  man,  than  if 
he  had  not  been  baptized  ?  Are  there  an}'-  acts 
precedent,  concomitant,  or  consequent  to  this  pre- 
tended habit  ?  This  strange  invention  is  absolutelj^ 
without  art,  without  Scripture,  reasoii,  or  authority : 
but  the  men  are  to  be  excused  unless  there  were  a 
better.  But  for  all  these  stratagems,  the  argument 
now  alleged  against  the  baptism  of  infants  is  de- 
monstrative and  unanswerable. 

To  which  also  this  consideration  may  be  added, 
that  if  baptism  be  necessary  to  the  salvation  of 
infants,  upon  whom  is  the  imposition  laid  ?  To 
whom  is  tiie  command  given  ?  to  the  parents  or  to 


330  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS, 

the  children?  Not  to  the  children,  for  tliey  are 
not  capable  of  a  law ;  nor  to  the  parents,  for  then 
God  hath  put  the  salvation  of  innocent  babes  into 
the  power  of  others,  and  infants  may  be  damned 
for  their  fathers'  carelessness  or  malice.  It  follows, 
that  it  is  not  necessary  at  all  to  be  done  to  tliem 
to  whom  it  cannot  be  prescribed  as  a  law,  and  in 
whose  behalf  it  cannot  be  reasonably  intrusted  to 
others  with  the  appendant  necessity;  and  if  it  be 
not  necessary,  it  is  certain  it  is  not  reasonable ;  and 
most  certain  it  is  no  where  in  terms  prescribed,  and 
therefore  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  ought  to  be 
understood  and  administered  according  as  other 
precepts  are,  with  reference  to  the  capacity  of  the 
subject  and  the  reasonableness  of  the  thing. 

For  I  consider  that  the  baptizing  of  infants  does 
rusk  us  upon  suck  inconveniences  which  in  other 
questions  we  avoid  like  rocks,  which  will  appear  if 
we  discourse  thus. 

Either  baptism  produces  spiritual  effects  or  it 
produces  them  n'^^ :  if  it  produces  not  any,  why  is 
suck  contention  about  it  ?  wkat  are  we  tke  nearer 
heaven  if  we  are  baptized  ?  and  if  it  be  neglected, 
wkat  are  we  tke  fartker  of?  But  if  (as  without 
all  peradventure  all  the  pa^dobiiptists  will  say) 
baptism  does  do  a  work  upon  tke  soul,  producing 
spiritual  benefits  and  advantages,  tkese  advantages 
are  produced  by  tke  external  work  of  tke  sacrament 
alone,  or  by  tkat  as  it  is  kelped  by  tke  co-operation 
and  predispositions  of  tke  suscipient. 

If  by  tke  external  v/ork  of  tke  sacrament  alone, 
how  does  tiiis  differ  from  tke  opus  operaticm  of  tke 
papists,  save  that  it  is  worse  ?  For  they  say  the 
sacrament  does  not  produce  its  effect  but  in  a  sus- 
cipient, disposed  by  all  requisites  and  due  prepara- 
tives of  piety,  faith,  and  repentance ;  though  in  a 


THE   LIBERTY  OF   PROPHESYING.  381 

subject  SO  disposed,  they  say  tlie  sacrament  by  its 
own  virtue  does  it,  but  this  opinion  says,  it  does 
it  of  itself  without  the  help  or  so  much  as  the  co- 
existence of  any  condition  but  the  mere  reception. 

But  if  the  sacrament  does  not  do  its  work  alone, 
hut  per  modicm  recipientis  (according  to  the  predis- 
positions of  the  suscipient),  then  because  infants 
can  neither  hinder  it  nor  do  any  thing  to  further  it, 
it  does  them  no  benefit  at  all.  And  if  any  man  runs 
for  succor  to  that  exploded  refuge,  that  infants 
have  faith,  or  any  other  inspired  habit  of  I  know 
not  what  or  how,  we  desire  no  more  advantage  in 
the  world  than  that  they  are  constrained  to  an 
answer  without  revelation,  against  reason,  common 
sense,  and  all  the  experience  in  the  world. 

The  sum  of  the  argument,  in  short,  is  this,  though 
under  another  representment : — 

Either  baptism  is  a  mere  ceremony,  or  it  implies 
a  duty  on  our  part.  If  it  be  a  ceremony  only,  how 
does  it  sanctify  us  or  make  the  comers  thereunto 
perfect  ?  If  it  implies  a  duty  on  our  part,  how 
then  can  children  receive  it,  who  cannot  do  duty 
at  all  ? 

And  indeed  this  way  of  ministration  makes  bap- 
tism to  be  wholly  an  outward  duty,  a  work  of  the 
law,  a  carnal  ordinance :  it  makes  us  adhere  to  the 
letter  without  regard  of  the  spirit,  to  be  satisfied 
with  shadows,  to  return  to  bondage,  to  relinquish 
the  mysteriousness,  the  substance,  and  spirituality 
of  the  gospel :  which  argument  is  of  so  much  the 
more  consideration  because,  under  the  spiritual 
covenant,  or  the  gospel  of  grace,  if  the  mystery 
goes  not  before  the  symbol  (which  it  does  when 
tlie  s^nnbols  are  seals  and  consignations  of  the 
grace,  as  it  is  said  the  sacraments  are),  yet  it  al- 
ways accompanies  it,  but  never  follows  in  order 


382  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

of  time;  and  this  is  clear  in  the  perpetual  analogy 
of  Holy  Scripture. 

For  baptism  is  never  propounded,  mentioned,  or 
enjoined,  as  a  means  of  remission  of  sins,  or  of 
eternal  life,  but  something  of  duty,  choice,  and 
sanctity  is  joined  with  it,  in  order  to  production  of 
the  end  so  mentioned :  "  Know  ye  not  that  as  many 
as  are  baptized  into  Christ  Jesus  are  baptized  into 
his  death  ?"*  There  is  the  mystery  and  the  symbol 
together,  and  declared  to  be  perpetually  united, 
oaoi  iQa^rurbiiuiv,  "  SO  many  of  us  as  were  baptized." 
All  of  us  who  were  baptized  into  one  were  bap- 
tized into  the  other.  Not  only  into  the  name  of 
Christ,  but  into  his  death  also.  But  tlie  meaning 
of  this,  as  it  is  explained  in  the  following  words  of 
St.  Paul,  makes  much  for  our  purpose ;  for  to  be 
baptized  into  his  death  signifies  "  to  be  buried  with 
him  in  baptism,  that  as  Christ  rose  from  the  dead 
we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life."t  That  is 
the  full  mystery  of  baptism ;  for  being  baptized 
into  his  death,  or  which  is  all  one  in  the  next  words, 
iv  ofA-oiu^fxAri  Tov  ^AvsiTov  AVTov,  "  Into  the  Ukcness  of  his 
death,"  cannot  go  alone ;  "  if  we  be  so  planted  into 
Christ,  we  shall  be  partakers  of  his  resurrection,"^ 
and  that  is  not  here  instanced  in  precise  reward, 
but  in  exact  duty;  for  all  this  is  nothing  but  "cru- 
cifixion of  the  old  man,  a  destroying  the  body  of 
sin,  that  we  no  longer  serve  sin."§ 

This  indeed  is  truly  to  be  baptized,  both  in  the 
symbol  and  the  mystery;  whatsoever  is  less  than 
this  is  but  the  symbol  only,  a  mere  ceremony,  an 
opus  operalum^  a  dead  letter,  an  empty  shadow, 
an  instrument  without  an  agent  to  manage  or  force 
to  actuate  it. 

*  Rom.  vi.  3.      t  ^om.  iv,  4.      %  Verse  5.      §  Verse  6. 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  383 

Plainer  yet : "  Whosoever  are  baptized  into  Christ 
have  put  on  Christ,  have  put  on  the  new  man ;"  but 
to  put  on  this  new  man  is  "  to  be  formed  in  right- 
eousness, and  holiness,  and  truth."  This  whole 
argument  is  the  very  words  of  St.  Paul ;  the  major 
proposition  is  dogmatically  determined.  Gal.  iii.  27 ; 
the  minor  in  Ephes.  iv.  24.  The  conclusion,  then, 
is  obvious,  that  they  who  are  not  formed  new  in 
righteousness,  and  holiness,  and  truth — they  who, 
remaining  in  the  present  incapacities,  cannot  walk 
in  newness  of  life — they  have  not  been  baptized 
into  Christ,  and  then  they  have  but  one  member  of 
the  distinction  used  by  St.  Peter,  they  have  that 
baptism  "which  is  a  putting  away  the  filth  of  the 
flesh,"  but  they  have  not  that  baptism  "  which  is 
the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards  God,"* 
which  is  the  only  "  baptism  that  saves  us :"  and 
this  is  the  case  of  children ;  and  then  the  case  is 
thus: — 

As  infants  by  the  force  of  nature  cannot  put 
themselves  into  a  supernatural  condition  (and 
therefore,  say  the  paedobaptists,  they  need  bap- 
tism to  put  them  into  it),  so,  if  they  be  baptized 
before  the  use  of  reason,  before  the  works  of  the 
Spirit,  before  the  operations  of  grace,  before  they 
can  throw  off  *'  the  works  of  darkness,  and  live  in 
righteousness  and  newness  of  life,"  they  are  never 
the  nearer :  from  the  pains  of  hell  they  shall  be 
saved  by  the  mercies  of  God  and  their  own  inno- 
cence, though  they  die  in  a  state  of  nature,  and 
baptism  will  carry  them  no  further.  For  that  bap- 
tism that  saves  us  is  not  the  only  washing  with 
water  of  which  only  children  are  capable,  but  the 
answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards  God ;  of  which 

*  1  Pet-  iii.  21. 


384  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

they  are  not  capable  till  the  use  of  reason,  till  they 
know  to  choose  the  good  and  refuse  the  evil. 

And  from  thence  I  consider  anew  that  all  vows 
made  by  persons  under  others'  names,  stipulations 
made  by  minors,  are  not  valid  till  they,  by  a  super 
vening  act,  after  they  are  of  sufficient  age,  do  ratifj' 
them.  Why,  then,  may  not  infants  as  well  make 
the  vow  de  novo  as  de  novo  ratify  that  which  was 
made  for  them  ab  antiquo,  when  they  come  to  years 
of  choice  ?  *  If  the  infant  vow  be  invalid  till  the 
manly  confirmation,  why  were  it  not  as  good  they 
staid  to  make  it  till  that  time,  before  which,  if  they 
do  make  it,  it  is  to  no  purpose  ?  This  would  be 
considered. 

And  in  conclusion :  our  way  is  the  surer  way, 
for  not  to  baptize  children  till  they  can  give  an 
account  of  their  faith  is  the  most  proportionable  to 
an  act  of  reason  and  humanity;  and  it  can  have  no 
danger  in  it ;  for  to  say  that  infants  may  be  damned 
for  want  of  baptism  (a  thing  which  is  not  in  their 
power  to  acquire,  they  being  persons  not  yet  capa- 
ble of  a  law),  is  to  affirm  that  of  God  which  we 
dare  not  say  of  any  wise  and  good  man.  Certainly 
it  is  much  derogatory  to  God's  justice,  and  a  plain 
defiance  to  the  infinite  reputation  of  hi^  goodness. 

And  therefore  whoever  will  pertinaciously  per- 
sist in  this  opinion  of  the  pssdobaptists,  and 
practise  it  accordingly,  they  pollute  the  blood  of 
the  everlasting  testament,  they  dishonor  and  make 
a  pageantry  of  the  sacrament,  they  inetFectually 
represent  a  sepulchre  into  the  death  of  Christ,  and 
please  themselves  in  a  sign  without  effect,  making 
baptism  like  the  fig-tree  in  the  gospel,  full  of  leaves, 
but  no  fruit;  and  they  invocate  the  Holy  Ghost  in 

*  ViH°,  Erasmum  in  preefat.  ad  Annotat.  in  Matth. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  385 

vain,  doing  as  if  one  should  call  upon  him  to  illu- 
minate a  stone  or  a  tree. 

Thus  far  the  anabaptists  may  argue ;  and  men 
have  disputed  against  them  with  so  much  weakness 
and  confidence,  that  they  have  been  encouraged  in 
their  error*  more  by  the  accidental  advantages  we 
have  given  them  by  our  weak  arguings,  than  by 
any  truth  of  their  cause,  or  excellency  of  their  wit. 
But  the  use  I  make  of  it  as  to  our  present  question 
is  this  :  that  since  there  is  no  direct  impiety  in  the 
opinion,  nor  any  that  is  apparently  consequent  to 
it,  and  they  with  so  much  probability  do,  or  may, 
pretend  to  true  persuasion,  they  are,  with  all  means 
Christian,  fair,  and  humane,  to  be  redargued  or 
instructed ;  but  if  they  cannot  be  persuaded,  they 
must  be  left  to  God,  who  knows  every  degree  of 
every  man's  understanding,  all  his  weaknesses  and 
strengths,  what  impress  each  argument  makes  upon 
his  spirit,  and  how  irresistible  every  reason  is ;  and 
he  alone  judges  his  innocency  and  sincerity.  And 
for  that  question,  I  think  there  is  so  much  to  be 
pretended  against  that  which  I  believe  to  be  the 
truth,  that  there  is  much  more  truth  than  evidence 
on  our  side ;  and  therefore  we  may  be  confident 
as  for  our  own  particulars,  but  not  too  forward 
peremptorily  to  prescribe  to  others,  much  less  to 
damn,  or  to  kill,  or  to  persecute  them  that  only  in 
this  particular  disagree. 

i]fji»Tif>a}v  tra^fioi!  tavtyiv  ^nfivovTi;,  as  Nazianzen  observes  of  the 
case  of  the  church  in  his  time 


S3 


386  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION   XIX. 

That  there  may  be  no  Toleration  of  Doctrines  incon- 
consistent  ivith  Piety  or  the  Public  Good. 

But  then  for  their  capital  opinion,  with  all  its 
branches,  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  princes  to  put 
malefactors  to  death,  nor  to  take  up  defensive  arms, 
nor  to  minister  an  oath,  nor  to  contend  in  judg- 
ment, it  is  not  to  be  disputed  with  such  liberty  as 
the  former.  For  although  it  be  part  of  that  doctrine 
which  Clemens  Alexandrinus  says  was  delivered 
by  private  tradition  from  the  apostles,  '  that  it  is 
not  allowable  for  Christians  to  go  to  law,  neither 
before  the  heathen  nor  believers;  and  that  a 
righteous  man  ought  not  to  take  an  oath  f  and  the 
other  part  seems  to  be  warranted  by  the  eleventh 
canon  of  the  Nicene  council,  which  enjoins  penance 
to  them  that  take  arms  after  their  conversion  to 
Christianity ;  yet  either  these  authorities  are  to  be 
slighted,  or  be  made  receptive  of  any  interpreta- 
tion, rather  than  the  commonwealth  be  disarmed 
of  its  necessary  supports,  and  all  laws  made 
ineffectual  and  impertinent :  for  the  interest  of  the 
republic  and  the  well-being  of  bodies  politic  is  not 
to  depend  upon  the  nicety  of  our  imaginations,  or 
the  fancies  of  any  peevish  or  mistaken  priests ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  a  prince  should  ask  John-a- 
Brunck  whether  his  understanding  will  give  him 

*  "Non  licere  Christianis  contendere  in  judicio,  nee 
coram  gentibus,  nee  coram  Sanctis,  et  perfeetum  non  debere 
jurare.  — Lib,  vii.  Stromat. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF    PROPHESYING.  387 

leave  to  reign,  and  be  a  king.  Naj,  suppose  there 
were  divers  places  of  Scripture  which  did  seem- 
ingly restrain  the  political  use  of  the  sword,  jet 
since  the  avoiding  a  personal  inconvenience  hath 
bj  all  men  been  accounted  sufficient  reason  to 
expound  Scripture  to  any  sense  rather  than  the 
literal,  which  infers  an  unreasonable  inconvenience 
(and  therefore  the  pulling  out  an  eye  and  the 
cutting  off  an  hand  is  expounded  by  mortifying  a 
vice,  and  killing  a  criminal  habit),  much  rather 
must  the  allegations  against  the  power  of  the 
sword  endure  any  sense,  rather  than  it  should  be 
thought  that  Christianity  should  destroy  that  which 
is  the  only  instrument  of  justice,  the  restraint  of 
vice  and  support  of  bodies  politic.  It  is  certain 
that  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  Christian  religion, 
did  comply  with  the  most  absolute  goverment,  and 
the  most  imperial  that  was  then  in  the  world ;  and 
it  could  not  have  been  at  all  endured  in  the  world 
if  it  had  not ;  for,  indeed,  the  world  itself  could  not 
last  in  regular  and  orderly  communities  of  men, 
but  be  a  perpetual  confusion,  if  princes  and  the 
supreme  power  in  bodies  politic  were  not  armed 
with  a  coercive  power  to  punish  malefactors.  The 
public  necessity  and  universal  experience  of  all  the 
world  convinces  those  men  of  being  most  unrea- 
sonable that  make  such  pretences,  which  destroy 
all  laws  and  all  communities,  and  the  bands  of 
civil  societies,  and  leave  it  arbitrary  to  every  vain 
or  vicious  person,  whether  men  shall  be  safe,  or 
laws  be  established,  or  a  murderer  hanged,  oi 
princes  rule.  So  tliat,  in  this  case,  men  are  not 
so  much  to  dispute  with  particular  arguments  as 
to  consider  the  interest  and  concernment  of 
kingdoms  and  public  societies ;  for  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  best  establisher  of  the  felicity 


388  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

of  private  persons  and  of  public  communities ;  it 
is  a  religion  that  is  prudent  and  innocent,  hu- 
mane, and  reasonable,  and  brought  infinite  advan- 
tages to  mankind,  but  no  inconvenience,  nothing 
that  is  unnatural,  or  unsociable,  or  unjust.  And 
if  it  be  certain  that  this  v^rorld  cannot  be  governed 
without  laws,  and  laws  without  a  compulsory  sig- 
nify nothing,  then  it  is  certain  that  it  is  no  good 
religion  that  teaches  doctrine  whose  consequents 
will  destroy  all  government ;  and  therefore  it  is 
as  much  to  be  rooted  out  as  any  thing  that  is  the 
greatest  pest  and  nuisance  to  the  public  interest. 
And  that  we  may  guess  at  the  purposes  of  the  men 
and  the  inconvenience  of  such  doctrine,  these  men 
that  did  first  intend  by  their  doctrine  to  disarm 
all  princes  and  bodies  politic,  did  themselves  take 
up  arms  to  establish  their  wild  and  impious  fancy ; 
and,  indeed,  that  prince  or  commonwealth  that 
should  be  persuaded  by  them,  would  be  exposed 
to  all  the  insolences  of  foreigners,  and  all  mutinies 
of  the  teachers  themselves ;  and  the  governors  of 
the  people  could  not  do  that  duty  they  owe  to 
their  people  of  protecting  them  from  the  rapine 
and  malice  which  will  be  in  the  world  as  long  as 
the  world  is.  And  tlierefore  here  they  are  to  be 
restrained  from  preaching  such  doctrine,  if  they 
mean  to  preserve  their  government ;  and  the  neces- 
sity of  the  thing  will  justify  the  lawfulness  of  the 
thing.  If  they  think  it  to  themselves,  that  it  can- 
not be  helped  so  long  as  it  is  innocent,  as  much  as 
concerns  the  public ;  but  if  they  preach  it,  they 
may  be  accounted  authors  of  all  the  consequent 
inconveniences,  and  punished  accordingly.  No 
doctrine  that  destroys  government  is  to  be  endured 
— for  although  those  doctrines  are  not  always  good 
that  serve  the  private  ends  of  princes  or  the  secret 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  389 

designs  of  state,  which,  by  reason  of  some  accidents 
or  imperfections  of  men,  may  be  promoted  by  that 
which  is  false  and  pretending ;  yet  no  doctrine  can 
be  good  that  does  not  comply  with  the  formality 
of  government  itself,  and  the  well-being  ot"  bodies 
politic :  "  Cato,  when  an  augur,  ventured  to  say 
that  the  omens  were  always  in  favor  of  what  was 
for  the  public  good,  and  against  whatever  was  the 
reverse."*  Religion  is  to  meliorate  the  condition 
of  a  people,  not  to  do  it  disadvantage;  and  there- 
fore those  doctrines  that  inconvenience  the  public 
are  no  parts  of  good  religion.  The  safety  of  the 
state  is  a  necessary  consideration  in  the  permis- 
sion of  prophesyings ;  for  according  to  the  true, 
solid,  and  prudent  ends  of  the  republic,  so  is  the 
doctrine  to  be  permitted  or  restrained,  and  the  men 
that  preach  it,  according  as  they  are  good  subjects 
and  right  commonwealth's  men ;  for  religion  is  a 
thing  superinduced  to  temporal  government,  and 
the  church  is  an  addition  of  a  capacity  to  a  com- 
monwealth, and  therefore  is  in  no  sense  to  disserve 
the  necessity  and  just  interests  of  that  to  which  it 
is  superadded  for  its  advantage  and  conservation. 
And  thus,  by  a  proportion  to  the  rules  of  these 
instances,  all  their  other  doctrines  are  to  have  their 
judgment,  as  concerning  toleration  or  restraint ; 
for  all  are  either  speculative  or  practical;  they  are 
consistent  with  the  public  ends  or  inconsistent,  they 
teach  impiety  or  they  are  innocent,  and  they  are 
to  be  permitted  or  rejected  accordingly.  For  in 
the  question  of  toleration,  the  foundation  of  faith, 
good  life  and  government  is  to  be  secured :  in  all 
other  cases,  the  former  considerations  are  effectual. 

*  "  Augur  cum  esset  Cato,  dicere  ausus  est,  optimis  aus- 
piciis  ea  geri  quae  pro  reipublicae  salute  gererentur ;  quae 
contra  rempublicam  fierent,  contra  auapicia  fieri." — Cicero 
de  Senectute. 
33* 


390  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION    XX. 

How  far  the  Religion  of  the  Church  of  Ro7ne  is 
tolerable. 

But  now,  concerning  the  religion  of  the  chiircli 
of  Rome  (which  was  the  other  instance  I  pro- 
mised to  consider),  we  will  proceed  another  way, 
and  not  consider  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  doc- 
trines ;  for  that  is  not  the  best  way  to  determine 
this  question  concerning  permitting  their  religion 
or  assemblies;  because  that  a  thing  is  not  true,  is 
not  argument  sufficient  to  conclude  that  he  that 
believes  it  true  is  not  to  be  endured ;  but  we  are 
to  consider  what  inducements  there  are  that  pos- 
sess the  understanding  of  those  men,  whether 
they  be  reasonable  and  innocent,  sufficient  to 
abuse  or  persuade  wise  and  good  men,  or  whether 
the  doctrines  be  commenced  upon  design,  and 
managed  with  impiety,  and  then  have  eftects  not 
to  be  endured. 

And  here,  first  I  consider  that  those  doctrines 
that  have  had  long  continuance  and  possession  in 
the  church,  cannot  easily  be  supposed  in  the  pre- 
sent professors  to  be  a  design,  since  they  have 
received  it  from  so  many  ages ;  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  all  ages  should  have  the  same  purposes,  or 
that  the  same  doctrine  should  serve  the  several 
ends  of  divers  ages.  But,  however,  long  prescrip- 
tion is  a  prejudice  oftentimes  so  insupportable  that 
it  cannot  with  many  arguments  be  retrenched,  as 
relying  upon  these  grounds,  that  truth  is  more 


THK    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  391 

certain  than  falsehood ;  that  God  would  not  for  so 
many  ages  forsake  his  church,  and  leave  her  in 
error;  that  whatsoever  is  nev/  is  not  only  suspi- 
cious but  false;  which  are  suppositions  pious  and 
plausible  enough.  And  if  the  church  of  Rome 
had  communicated  infants  so  long  as  she  hath 
prayed  to  saints  or  baptized  infants,  the  commu- 
nicating would  have  been  believed  with  as  much 
confidence  as  the  other  articles  are,  and  the  dis- 
sentients with  as  much  impatience  rejected.  But 
this  consideration  is  to  be  enlarged  upon  all  those 
particulars,  which  as  they  are  apt  to  abuse  the 
persons  of  the  men  and  amuse  their  understand- 
ings, so  they  are  instruments  of  their  excuse ;  and 
by  making  their  errors  to  be  invincible,  and  their 
opinions,  though  false,  yet  not  criminal,  make  it 
also  to  be  an  effect  of  reason  and  charity  to  permit 
the  men  a  liberty  of  their  conscience,  and  let  them 
answer  to  God  for  themselves  and  their  own 
opinions :  such  as  are  the  beauty  and  splendor  of 
their  church;  their  pompous  service;  the  state- 
iir.ess  and  solemnity  of  the  hierarchy;  their  name 
of  Catholic,  which  they  suppose  their  own  due, 
and  to  concern  no  other  sect  of  Christians ;  the 
antiquity  of  many  of  their  doctrines ;  the  con- 
tinual succession  of  their  bishops;  their  immediate 
derivation  from  the  apostles ;  their  title  to  succeed 
St.  Peter ;  the  supposal  and  pretence  of  his  per- 
sonal prerogatives ;  the  advantages  which  the  con- 
junction of  the  imperial  seat  \nth  their  episcopal 
hath  brought  to  that  see ;  the  flattering  expressions 
of  minor  bishops,  which  by  being  old  records,  have 
obtained  credibility;  the  multitude  and  variety  of 
people  which  are  of  their  persuasion;  apparent 
consent  with  antiquity  in  many  ceremonials  which 
other  churches  have  rejected ;  and  a  pretended, 


39^*  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

and  sometimes  an  apparent  consent  with  some 
elder  ages  in  many  matters  doctrinal ;  the  advan- 
tage which  is  derived  to  them  bj  entertaining  some 
personal  opinions  of  tiie  fathers,  which  thej  with 
infinite  clamors  see  to  be  cried  up  to  be  a  doc- 
trine of  the  church  of  that  time;  the  great  consent 
of  one  part  with  another  in  that  which  most  of 
them  affirm  to  be  matter  of  faith ;  the  great  dif- 
ferences which  are  commenced  amono-st  their  ad- 
versaries,  abusing  the  Liberty  of  Propliesying 
unto  a  very  great  licentiousness  ;  their  Jiappiness 
of  being  instruments  in  converting  divers  nations ; 
the  advantages  of  monarchical  government,  the 
benefit  of  which  as  well  as  the  inconveniences, 
(which  though  they  feel  they  consider  not)  they 
daily  do  enjoy;  the  piety  and  the  austerity  of 
their  religious  orders  of  men  and  women ;  the 
single  life  of  their  priests  and  bishops ;  the  riches 
of  their  church;  the  severity  of  their  fasts  and 
their  exterior  observances;  the  great  reputation 
of  their  first  bishops  for  faith  and  sanctity;  the 
known  holiness  of  some  of  those  persons  whose 
institutes  the  religious  persons  pretend  to  imitate ; 
their  miracles,  false  or  true,  substantial  or  ima- 
ginary; the  casualties  and  accidents  that  have 
happened  to  their  adversaries,  which,  being  chances 
of  humanity,  are  attributed  to  several  causes,  ac- 
cording as  the  fancies  of  men  and  their  interests 
are  pleased  or  satisfied ;  the  temporal  felicity  of 
their  professors;  the  oblique  arts  and  indirect 
proceedings  of  some  of  those  who  departed  froui 
them ;  and  amongst  many  other  things,  the  names 
of  heretic  and  schismatic,  which  they  widi  infinite 
pertinacy  fasten  upon  all  that  disagree  from  them 
—these  things,  and  divers  others,  may  very  easily 
persuade  persons  of  much  reason  and  more  pietv. 


THE  LIBERTY  OF   PROPHESYING.  393 

to  retain  that  which  they  know  to  have  been  the 
religion  of  their  forefathers,  which  had  actual  pos- 
session and  seizure  of  men's  understandings  be- 
fore the  opposite  professions  had  a  name ;  and  so 
much  the  rather,  because  religion  hath  more  ad- 
vantages upon  the  fancy  and  affections  than  it  hath 
upon  philosophy  and  severe  discourses,  and  there- 
fore is  the  more  easily  persuaded  upon  such 
grounds  as  these,  which  are  more  apt  to  amuse 
than  to  satisfy  the  understanding. 

Secondly,  if  we  consider  the  doctrines  tliem- 
selves,  we  shall  find  them  to  be  superstructures  ill 
built  and  worse  managed,  but  yet  they  keep  the 
foundation ;  they  build  upon  God  in  Jesus  Christ; 
they  profess  the  apostles'  creed ;  they  retain  faith 
and  repentance  as  the  supporters  of  all  our  hopes 
of  heaven,  and  believe  many  more  truths  than  can 
be  proved  to  be  of  simple  and  original  necessity 
to  salvation ;  and  therefore  all  the  wisest  person- 
ages of  the  adverse  party  allowed  to  them  possi- 
bility of  salvation,  whilst  their  errors  are  not 
faults  of  their  will,  but  weaknesses  and  decep- 
tions of  the  understanding.  So  tliat  there  is  no- 
tliing  in  the  foundation  of  faith  that  can  reasonably 
hinder  them  to  be  permitted.  The  foundation  of 
faith  stands  secure  enough  for  all  their  vain  and 
unhandsome  superstructures. 

But  then,  on  the  other  side,  if  we  take  account 
of  their  doctrines  as  they  relate  to  good  life,  or 
are  consistent  or  inconsistent  with  civil  govern- 
ment, we  shall  have  other  considerations. 

For,  thirdly,  I  consider  that  many  of  their  doc- 
trines do  accidentally  teach  or  lead  to  ill  life;  and 
it  will  appear  to  any  man  that  considers  the 
result  of  these  propositions.  Attrition  (which  is 
a  low  and  imperfect  degree  of  sorrow  for  sin,  or. 


594  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

as  others  say,  a  sorrow  for  sin  commenced  upon 
any  reason  of  temporal  hope,  or  fear,  or  desire,  or 
anything  else)  is  a  sufficient  disposition  for  a  man 
in  the  sacrament  of  penance  to  receive  absolution, 
and  be  justified  before  God,  by  taking  away  the 
guilt  of  all  his  sins  and  the  obligation  to  eternal 
pains.  So  that  already  the  fear  of  hell  is  quite 
removed,  upon  conditions  so  easy  that  many  men 
take  more  pains  to  get  a  groat,  than  by  this  doc- 
trine we  are  obliged  to  for  the  curing  and  acquit- 
ing  all  the  greatest  sins  of  a  whole  life  of  the 
most  vicious  person  in  the  world ;  and  but  that 
they  affright  their  people  with  a  fear  of  purgatory, 
or  with  the  severity  of  penances,  in  case  they  will 
not  venture  for  purgatory  (for  by  tlieir  doctrine 
they  may  choose  or  refuse  either),  there  would  be 
nothing  in  their  doctrine  or  discipline  to  impede 
and  slacken  their  proclivity  to  sin.  But  then 
they  have  as  easy  a  cure  for  that  too,  v/ith  a  little 
more  charge  sometimes,  but  most  commonly  with 
less  trouble.  For  there  are  so  many  confraterni- 
ties, so  many  privileged  churches,  altars,  monas- 
teries, cemeteries,  offices,  festivals,  and  so  free  a 
concession  of  indulgences  appendant  to  all  these, 
and  a  thousand  fine  devices  to  take  away  the  fear 
of  purgatory,  to  commute  or  expiate  penances, 
that  in  no  sect  of  men  do  they  with  more  ease 
and  cheapness  reconcile  a  wicked  life  with  the 
hopes  of  heaven,  than  in  the  Roman  communion. 
And,  indeed,  if  men  would  consider  things  upon 
their  true  grounds,  the  church  of  Rome  should  be 
more  reproved  upon  doctrines  that  infer  ill  life, 
than  upon  such  as  are  contrariant  to  faith.  For 
false  superstructures  do  not  always  destroy  faith; 
but  many  of  the  doctrines  they  teach,  if  they  v/ere 
prosecuted    to  the   utmost  issue,  would  destroy 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  395 

good  life.  And  therefore  my  quarrel  with  the 
church  of  Rome  is  greater  and  stronger  upon 
such  points  wliich  are  not  usually  considered,  tlian 
it  is  upon  the  ordinary  disputes  which  have,  to  no 
very  great  purpose,  so  much  disturbed  Christen- 
dom ;  and  I  am  more  scandalized  at  her  for  teach- 
ing the  sufficiency  of  attrition  in  the  sacrament, 
for  indulging  penances  so  frequently,  for  remitting 
all  discipline,  for  making  so  great  a  part  of  religion 
to  consist  in  externals  and  ceremonials,  for  put- 
ting more  force  and  energy,  and  exacting  with 
more  severity  the  commandments  of  men  tlian  the 
precepts  of  justice  and  internal  religion ;  lastly, 
besides  many  other  things,  for  promising  heaven 
to  persons  after  a  wicked  life,  upon  their  imperti- 
nent cries  and  ceremonials,  transacted  by  the 
priest  and  the  dying  person  :  I  confess,  I  wish  the 
zeal  of  Christendom  were  a  little  more  active 
against  these  and  the  like  doctrines,  and  that  men 
would  write  and  live  more  earnestly  against  them 
than  as  yet  they  have  done. 

But  then,  what  influence  this  just  zeal  is  to 
have  upon  the  persons  of  the  professors  is  another 
consideration ;  for  as  the  Pharisees  did  preach 
well  and  lived  ill,  and  therefore  were  to  be  heard, 
not  imitated,  so  if  these  men  live  well  though  they 
teach  ill,  they  are  to  be  imitated,  not  heard  :  their 
doctrines  by  all  means.  Christian  and  human,  are 
to  be  discountenanced,  but  their  persons  tolerated 
so  far  (eatenus) ;  their  profession  and  decrees  to 
be  rejected  and  condemned,  but  the  persons  to  be 
permitted,  because  by  their  good  lives  they  con- 
fute their  doctrines ;  that  is,  they  give  evidence 
that  they  think  no  evil  to  be  consequent  to  such 
opinions;  (ind  if  they  did,  that  they  live  good 
lives  is  argument  sufficient  that  they  would  them- 


OyO  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

selves  cast  the  first  stone  against  their  own  opi- 
nions, if  they  thought  them  guilty  of  such  misde- 
meanors. 

Fourthly :  but  if  we  consider  their  doctrines  in 
relation  to  government  and  public  societies  of 
men,  then,  if  they  prove  faulty,  they  are  so  much 
the  more  intolerable  by  how  much  the  consequents 
are  of  greater  danger  and  malice.  Such  doctrines 
as  these — the  pope  may  dispense  with  all  oaths 
taken  to  God  or  man ;  he  may  absolve  subjects 
from  their  allegiance  to  their  natural  prince ;  faith 
is  not  to  be  kept  with  heretics ;  heretical  princes 
maybe  slain  by  their  subjects — these  propositions 
are  so  depressed,  and  do  so  immediately  com- 
municate with  matter  and  the  interests  of  men, 
that  they  are  of  the  same  consideration  with  mat- 
ters of  fact,  and  are  to  be  handled  accordingly. 
To  other  doctrines  ill  life  may  be  consequent,  but 
the  connexion  of  the  antecedent  and  the  con- 
sequent is  not  (peradventure)  perceived  or  ac- 
knowledged by  him  that  believes  the  opinion  with 
no  o-reater  confidence  than  he  disavows  the  effect 
and  issue  of  it ;  but  in  these  the  ill  effect  is  the 
direct  profession  and  purpose  of  the  opinion ;  and 
therefore  the  man  and  the  man's  opinion  is  to  be 
dealt  V  ithal,  just  as  the  matter  of  fact  is  to  be 
judged;  for  it  is  an  immediate,  a  perceived,  a 
direct  event,  and  the  very  purpose  of  the  opinion. 
Now  these  opinions  are  a  direct  overthrow  to  all 
human  society  and  mutual  commerce,  a  destruc- 
tion of  government,  and  of  the  laws,  and  duty, 
and  subordination  which  we  owe  to  princes ;  and 
therefore  those  men  of  the  church  of  Rome  that 
do  hold  them,  and  preach  them,  cannot  pretend  to 
the  excuses  of  innocent  opinions  and  hearty  per- 
suasion, to  the  weakness  of  humanity,  and  the 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYiXG.       "        397 

difficulty  of  things ;  for  God  hath  not  left  those 
truths,  which  are  necessary  for  conservation  of 
public  societies  of  men,  so  intricate  and  obscure, 
but  that  every  one  that  is  honest  dud  desirous  to 
understand  his  duty  will  certainly  know  that  no 
Christian  truth  destroys  a  man's  being  sociable, 
and  a  member  of  the  body  politic,  co-operating  to 
the  conservation  of  the  whole,  as  well  as  of  itself. 
However,  if  it  might  happen  that  men  should 
sincerely  err  in  such  plain  matters  of  fact  (for 
there  are  fools  enough  in  the  world),  yet  if  he 
hold  his  peace,  no  man  is  to  persecute  or  punish 
him ;  for  then  it  is  mere  opinion,  which  comes  not 
under  political  cognizance;  that  is,  that  cogni- 
zance which  only  can  punish  corporally.  But  if 
he  preaches  it  he  is  actually  a  traitor,  or  seditious, 
or  author  of  perjury,  or  a  destroyer  of  human 
society,  respectively  to  the  nature  of  the  doctrine ; 
and  the  preaching  such  doctrines  cannot  claim  the 
privilege  and  immunity  of  a  mere  opinion,  because 
it  is  as  much  matter  of  fact  as  any  the  actions  of 
his  disciples  and  confidents;  and  therefore  in 
such  cases  is  not  to  be  permitted,  but  judged  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  the  effect  it  hath  or  may 
have  upon  the  actions  of  men. 

Fifthly:  but  lastly,  in  matters  merely  specula- 
tive, the  case  is  wholly  altered,  because  the  body 
politic,  which  only  may  lawfully  use  the  sword,  is 
not  a  competent  judge  of  such  matters  which  have 
not  direct  influence  upon  the  body  politic,  or  upon' 
the  lives  and  manners  of  men,  as  they  are  parts 
of  a  community  (not  but  that  princes,  or  judges 
temporal,  may  have  as  much  ability  as  others,  but 
by  reason  of  the  incompetency  of  the  authority) ; 
and  Gallio  spoke  wisely  when  he  discoursed  thus 
to  the  Jews :  '  If  it  Avere  a  matter  of  wrong  or 
34 


S98  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

wicked  lewdness,  0  ye  Jews,  reason  would  that  I 
should  hear  jou  ;  but  if  it  be  a  question  of  words 
and  names,  and  of  your  law,  look  ye  to  it ;  for  I 
will  be  no  judge  of  such  matters.'*  The  man 
spoke  excellent  reason,  for  the  cognizance  of  these 
things  did  appertain  to  men  of  the  otiier  robe ;  but 
tiie  ecclesiastical  power,  which  only  is  competent 
to  take  notice  of  such  questions,  is  not  of  capacity 
to  use  the  temporal  sword  or  corporal  inflictions. 
The  mere  doctrines  and  opinions  of  men  are 
things  spiritual,  and  therefore  not  cognizable  by 
a  temporal  authority;  and  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, which  is  to  take  cognizance,  is  itself  so 
spiritual  that  it  cannot  inflict  any  punishment 
corporal. 

And  it  is  not  enough  to  say,  that  when  the  ma- 
gistrate restrains  the  preaching  suc1\  opinions,  if 
any  man  preaches  them  he  may  be  punished  (and 
then  it  is  not  for  his  opinion  but  his  disobedience 
that  he  is  punished) ;  for  the  temporal  power  ought 
not  to  restrain  prophecyings,  where  the  public 
peace  and  interest  is  not  certainly  concei-ned.  And 
therefore  it  is  not  sufficient  to  excuse  him  whose 
law,  in  that  case,  being  by  an  incompetent  power, 
made  a  scruple  where  there  was  no  sin. 

And  under  this  consideration  come  very  many 
articles  of  the  church  of  Rome,  which  are  wholly 
speculative,  which  do  not  derive  upon  practice, 
which  begin  in  the  understanding  and  rest  there, 
and  have  no  influence  upon  life  and  government, 
but  very  accidentally,  and  by  a  great  many  re- 
moves ;  and  therefore  are  to  be  considered  only  so 
far  as  to  guide  men  in  their  persuasions,  but  have 
no  effect  upon  the  persons  of  men,  their  bodies,  or 

*  Acts  xviii.  14. 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  399 

their  temporal  condition  :  I  instance  in  two,  prayer 
for  the  dead  and  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  ; 
these  two  to  be  instead  of  all  the  rest. 

For  the  first,  this  discourse  is  to  suppose  it  false, 
and  we  are  to  direct  our  proceedings  accordingly; 
and  therefore  I  shall  not  need  to  urge  with  how 
snanj  fair  words  and  gay  pretences  this  doctrine 
is  set  oft*,  apt  either  to  cozen  or  instruct  the  con- 
science of  the  wisest,  according  as  it  is  true  or  false 
respectively.  But  we  find  (says  the  Romanist)  in 
the  history  of , the  Maccabees,  that  the  Jews  did 
pray  and  make  offerings  for  the  dead  (which  also 
appears  by  other  testimonies,  and  by  their  form  of 
prayers  still  extant,  which  they  used  in  the  cap- 
tivity) :  it  is  very  considerable,  that  since  our 
blessed  Savior  did  reprove  all  the  evil  doctrines 
and  traditions  of  the  «6cribes  and  Pharisees,  and 
did  aro-ue  concernino-  the  dead  and  the  resurrec- 
tion  against  the  Sadduces,  yet  he  spake  no  word 
against  this  public  practice,  but  left  it  as  he  found 
it,  which  he  who  came  to  declare  to  us  all  the  will 
of  his  Father  would  not  have  done  if  it  liad  not 
been  innocent,  pious,  and  full  of  charity.  To 
which,  by  way  of  consociation,  if  v;e  add  that  St. 
Paul  did  pray  for  Onesiphorus,  "that  God  would 
show  him  a  mercy  in  that  day'** — that  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  style  of  the  New  Testament,  the  day  of 
judgment — the  result  will  be,  that  c^lthough  it  be 
probable  that  Onesiphorus  at  that  time  was  dead 
(because  in  his  salutations  he  salutes  his  household, 
without  naming  him  who  was  the  major  domo, 
against  his  custom  of  salutations  in  other  places), 
yet,  besides  this,  the  prayer  was  for  such  a  blessing 
to  him  whose  demonstration  and  reception  could 

*  2  Tim.  i.  IS 


400  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

not  be  but  after  death  ;  which  implies  clearly,  that 
then  there  is  a  need  of  mercj ;  and  bj  consequence 
the  dead  people,  even  to  the  day  of  judgment 
inclusively,  are  the  subject  of  a  misery,  the  object 
of  God's  mercy,  and  therefore  fit  to  be  commemo- 
rated in  the  duties  of  our  piety  and  chanty,  and 
that  we  are  to  recommend  their  condition  to  God, 
not  only  to  give  them  more  glory  in  the  reunion, 
but  to  pity  them  to  such  purposes  in  which  they 
need ;  which  because  they  are  not  revealed  to  us 
in  particular,  it  hinders  us  not  in  recommending 
the  persons  in  particular  to  G(5d's  mercy,  but 
should  rather  excite  our  charity  and  devotion;  for 
it  being  certain  that  they  have  a  need  of  mercy^ 
and  it  being  uncertain  how  great  their  need  is,  it 
may  concern  the  prudence  of  charity  to  be  the 
more  earnest,  as  not  knowij^g  the  greatness  of  their 
necessity. 

And  if  there  should  be  any  uncertainty  in  these 
arguments,  yet  its  having  been  the  universal  prac- 
tice of  the  church  of  God  in  all  places  and  in  all 
ages,  till  within  these  hundred  years,  is  a  very 
great  inducement  for  any  member  of  the  church  to 
believe  that  in  the  first  traditions  of  Christianity 
and  the  institutions  apostolical,  there  was  nothing 
delivered  against  the  practice,  but  very  much  to 
insinuate  or  enjoin  it ;  because  the  practice  of  it  was 
at  the  first,  and  was  universal.  And  if  any  man 
shall  doubt  of  this,  he  shows  nothing  but  that  he  is 
ignorant  of  the  records  of  the  church,  it  being 
plain  in  TertuUian*  and  St.  Cypriant  (who  were 
the  eldest  writers  of  the  Latin  church),  that  in  their 
times  it  was  of  old  the  custom  of  the  church  to 
pray  for  the  souls  of  the  faithful  departed,  in  the 

*  De  Corona  Milit.  c.  3,  et  De  Monogam.  c.  10.       f  Ep.  G6 


THE    LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  401 

dreadful  mysteries ;  and  it  was  an  institution 
apostolical  (says  one  of  them),  and  so  transmitted 
to  the  following  ages  of  the  church;  and  when 
once  it  began  upon  slight  and  discontent  to  be 
contested  against  by  Aerius,  ike  man  was  pre- 
sently condemned  for  a  heretic,  as  appears  in 
Epiplianius. 

But  I  am  not  to  consider  the  arguments  for  the 
doctrine  itself,  although  the  probability  and  fair 
pretence  of  tliem  may  help  to  excuse  such  persons 
who  upon  these  or  tlie  like  grounds  do  heartily 
believe  it.  But  I  am  to  consider  that,  whetlier  it 
be  true  or  false,  there  is  no  manner  of  malice  in  it ; 
and  at  the  worst  it  is  but  a  wrong  error  upon  the 
right  side  of  charity,  and  concluded  against  by  its 
adversaries  upon  die  confidence  of  such  arguments, 
which  possibly  arc  not  so  probable  as  the  grounds 
pretended  for  it. 

And  if  the  same  judgment  might  be  made  of 
any  more  of  their  doctrines,  I  think  it  were  better 
men  were  not  furious  in  the  condemning  such 
<:|uestions,  which  either  they  understood  not  upon 
the  grounds  of  their  proper  arguments,  or  at  least 
consider  not,  as  subjected  in  the  persons,  and 
lessened  by  circumstances,  by  the  innocency  of 
the  event,  or  other  prudential  considerations. 

But  the  other  article  is  harder  to  be  judged  of, 
^nd  hath  made  greater  stirs  in  Christendom,  and 
hath  been  dashed  with  more  impetuous  objections, 
and  such  as  do  more  trouble  the  question  of  tolera- 
tion. For  if  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation 
be  false  (as  upon  much  evidence  we  believe  it  is), 
then  it  is  accused  of  introducing  idolatry,  giving 
diyine  worship  to  a  creature,  adoring  of  bread  and 
wine,  and  then  comes  in  iho.  precept  of  God  to 
34* 


402  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

the  Jews,  that  those  prophets  who  persuaded  to 
idolatry  should  be  slain.* 

But  here  we  must  deliberate,  for  it  is  concern- 
ing the  lives  of  men  ;  and  yet  a  little  deliberation 
may  suffice,  for  idolatry  is  a  forsaking  the  true 
God,  and  giving  divine  worship  to  a  creature  or 
to  an  idol ;  that  is  to  an  imaginary  god,  who  liath 
no  foundation  in  essence  or  existence ;  and  is  that 
kind  of  superstition  which  by  divines  is  called  the 
superstition  of  an  undue  object.  Now  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  object  of  their  adoration  (that  which 
is  represented  to  them  in  their  minds,  their 
thoughts,  and  purposes,  and  by  which  God  princi- 
pally, if  not  solely,  takes  estimate  of  human  ac- 
tions) in  the  blessed  sacrament,  is  the  only  true 
and  eternal  God,  hypostatically  joined  with  his 
holy  humanity ;  which  humanity  they  believe  ac- 
tually present  under  the  veil  of  the  sacramental 
signs.  And  if  they  thought  him  not  present,  they 
are  so  far  from  worshiping  the  bread  in  this  case, 
that  themselves  profess  it  to  be  idolatry  to  do  so, 
which  is  a  demonstration  that  their  soul  hath 
nothing  in  it  that  is  idolatrical.  If  their  confi- 
dence and  fanciful  opinion  hath  engaged  them 
upon  so  great  mistake  (as  without  doubt  it  hath), 
yet  the  will  hath  nothing  in  it,  but  what  is  a  great 
enemy  to  idolatry ,  ''  and  there  is  nothing  damn- 
able which  is  independent  of  the  wi]l."t  And 
although  they  have  done  violence  to  all  philosophy 
and  the  reason  of  man,  and  undone  and  canceled 
the  principles  of  two  or  three  sciences  to  bring  in 
this  article,  yet  they  have  a  divine  revelation 
whose  literal  and  grammatical  sense,  if  that  sense 

*  Deut.  xiii. 

t  "  Et  nihil  ardet  in  inferno  nisi  propria  voluntas  " 


THE  LIBERTY   OF    PROPHESYING.  403 

were  intended,  would  warrant  them  to  do  violence 
to  all  the  sciences  in  the  circle ;  and,  indeed,  that 
transubstantiation  is  openly  and  violently  against 
natural  reason,  is  an  argument  to  make  them  dis- 
believe, who  believe  the  mystery  of  the  trinity  in 
all  those  niceties  of  explication  which  are  in  the 
school  (and  which  now-a-days  pass  for  the  doc- 
trine of  the  church),  with  as  much  violence  to  the 
principles  of  natural  and  supernatural  philosophy 
as  can  be  imagined  to  be  in  the  point  of  transub- 
stantiation. 

1.  But  for  the  article  itself,  we  all  say  that 
Christ  is  there  present  some  way  or  other  extra- 
ordinary ;  and  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  worship  him 
at  that  time,  when  he  gives  himself  to  us  in  so 
mysterious  a  manner,  and  with  so  great  advan- 
tages; especially  since  the  whole  office  is  a  con- 
sociation of  divers  actions  of  religion  and  divine 
worship.  Now,  in  all  opinions  of  those  men  who 
think  it  an  act  of  religion  to  communicate  and  to 
offer,  a  divine  worship  is  given  to  Christ,  and  is 
transmitted  to  him  by  meditation  of  that  action 
and  that  sacrament;  and  it  is  no  more  in  the 
church  of  Rome,  but  that  they  differ  and  mistake 
infinitely  in  the  manner  of  his  presence;  which 
error  is  wholly  seated  in  the  understanding,  and 
does  not  communicate  with  the  will.  For  all 
agree  that  the  divinity  and  the  humanity  of  the 
Son  of  God  is  the  ultimate  and  adequate  object 
of  divine  adoration,  and  that  it  is  incommunicable 
to  any  creature  whatsoever ;  and  before  they  ven- 
ture to  pass  an  act  of  adoration,  they  believe  the 
bread  to  be  annihilated  or  turned  into  his  sub- 
stance who  may  lawfully  be  worshiped ;  and  they 
who  have  these  thoughts  are  as  much  enemies  of 


404  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

idolatry  as  they  that  understand  better  how  to 
avoid  that  inconvenience  which  is  supposed  to  be 
the  crime,  which  they  formally  hate,  and  we  ma- 
terially avoid :  this  consideration  was  concerning 
the  doctrine  itself. 

2.  And  now,  for  any  danger  to  men's  persons 
for  suffering  such  a  doctrine ;  this  I  shall  say,  that 
if  they  who  do  it,  are  not  formally  guilty  of  idol- 
atry, there  is  no  danger  that  they  whom  they  per- 
suade to  it  should  be  guilty;  and  M'hat  persons 
soever  believe  it  to  be  idolatry  to  worship  the  sa- 
crament, while  that  persuasion  remains  will  never 
be  brought  to  it,  there  is  no  fear  of  that :  and  he 
that  persuades  them  to  do  it  by  altering  their  per- 
suasions and  beliefs,  does  no  hurt  but  altering  the 
opinions  of  the  men,  and  abusing  their  under- 
standings; but  when  they  believe  it  to  be  no  idol- 
atry, then  their  so  believing  it  is  sufficient  secu- 
rity from  that  crime,  which  hath  so  great  a  tincture 
and  residency  in  the  will  that  from  thence  only  it 
hath  its  being  criminal. 

3.  However,  if  it  were  idolatry,  I  think  the 
precept  of  God  to  the  Jews,  of  killing  false  and 
idolatrous  prophets,  will  be  no  warrant  for  Chris- 
tians so  to  do.  For  in  the  case  of  the  apostles 
and  the  men  of  Samaria,  when  James  and  John 
would  have  called  for  fire  to  destroy  them,  even 
as  Elias  did  under  Moses's  law,  Christ  distin- 
guished the  spirit  of  Elias  from  his  own  spirit,  and 
taught  them  a  lesson  of  greater  sweetness,  and 
consigned  this  truth  to  all  ages  of  the  church,  that 
such  severity  is  not  consistent  with  the  meekness 
which  Christ  by  his  example  and  sermons  hath 
made  a  precept  evangelical ;  at  most  it  was  but  a 
judicial  law,  and  no  more  of  argument  to  make  it 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  405 

necessary  to  us  than  the  Mosaical  precepts  of  put- 
ting adulterers  to  death,  and  trying  the  accused 
persons  by  the  waters  of  jealousy. 

And  thuSj  in  these  two  instances,  I  have  given 
account  what  is  to  be  done  in  toleration  of  diver- 
sity of  opinions.;  the  result  of  which  is  principally 
this :  let  the  prince  and  the  secular  power  have  a 
care  the  commonwealth  be  safe.  For  whether 
such  and  such  a  sect  of  Christians  be  to  be  per- 
mitted, is  a  question  rather  political  than  religious ; 
for  as  for  the  concernments  of  religion,  these  in- 
stances have  furnished  us  with  sufficient  to  deter- 
mine us  in  our  duties  as  to  that  particular,  and  by 
one  of  these  all  particulars  may  be  judged. 

And  now  it  were  a  strange  inhumanity  to  permit 
Jews  in  a  commonwealth,  whose  interest  is  served 
by  their  inhabitation,  and  yet,  upon  equal  grounds 
of  state  and  policy,  not  to  permit  differing  sects 
of  Christians ;  for  although  possibly  there  is  more 
danger  men's  persuasions  should  be  altered  in  a 
commixture  of  divers  sects  of  Christians,  yet 
there  is  not  so  much  danger  when  they  are  changed 
from  Christian  to  Christian,  as  if  they  be  turned 
from  Christian  to  Jew,  as  many  are  daily  in  Spain 
and  Portugal. 

And  this  is  not  to  be  excused  by  saying  tlie 
church  hath  no  power  over  them  qui  f oris  sunt , 
*•  who  are  without,"  as  Jews  are.  For  it  is  tnie  the 
church  in  the  capacity  of  spiritual  regiments,  hath 
nothing  to  do  with  them,  because  they  are  not  her 
diocese ;  yet  the  prince  hath  to  do  with  them,  wlien 
they  are  subjects  of  his  regiment;  they  may  not 
be  excomm.unicate  any  more  than  a  stone  may  be 
killed,  because  they  are  not  of  the  Christian  com- 
munion, but  they  are  living  persons,  parts  of  the 
commonwealth,  infinitely  deceived  in  their  reli- 


406  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

gion,  and  very  dangerous  if  they  oiFer  to  persuade 
men  to  their  opinions,  and  are  the  greatest  enemies 
of  Christ,  whose  honor  and  the  interest  of  whose 
service  a  Christian  prince  is  bound  with  all  his 
power  to  maintain.  And  when  the  question  is 
of  punishing  disagreeing  persons  with  death,  the 
church  hath  equally  nothing  to  do  with  them  both, 
for  she  hath  nothing  to  do  with  the  temporal  sword  ; 
but  the  prince,  whose  subjects  equally  Christians 
and  Jews  are,  hath  equal  power  over  their  persons ; 
for  a  Christian  is  no  more  a  subject  than  a  Jew  is; 
the  prince  hath  upon  them  both  the  same  power  of 
life  and  death ;  so  that  the  Jew  by  being  no  Chris- 
tian is  not /oris,  or  any  more  an  exempt  person  [or 
his  body  or  his  life  than  the  Christian  is.  And 
yet  in  all  churches  where  the  secular  power  hath 
temporal  reason  to  tolerate  the  Jews,  they  are  tole- 
rated without  any  scruple  in  religion  ;  which  thing 
is  of  more  consideration,  because  the  Jews  are 
direct  blasphemers  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  blas- 
phemy by  their  own  law,  the  law  of  Moses,  is 
made  capital,  and  might  with  greater  reason  be 
inflicted  upon  them  who  acknowledge  its  obligation 
than  urged  upon  Christians  as  an  authority,  ena- 
bling princes  to  put  them  to  death  who  are  accused 
of  accidental  and  consequentive  blasphemy  and 
idolatry  respectively,  which  yet  they  hate  and  dis- 
avow with  much  zeal  and  heartiness  of  persuasion. 
And  I  cannot  yet  learn  a  reason  why  we  shall 
not  be  more  complying  with  them  who  are  of  the 
household  of  faith :  for  at  least  they  are  children, 
though  they  be  but  rebellious  children  (and  if  they 
were  not,  what  hath  the  mother  to  do  with  them 
any  more  than  with  the  Jews  ?) — they  are  in  some 
relation  or  habitude  of  the  family,  for  they  are 
consigned  with  the  same  baptism,  profess  the  same 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  407 

faith  delivered  by  the  apostles,  are  erected  in  the 
same  hope,  and  look  for  the  same  glory  to  be  re- 
vealed to  them  at  the  coming  of  their  common 
Lord  and  Savior,  to  whose  service,  according  to 
their  understanding,  they  have  vowed  themselves: 
and  if  the  disagreeing  persons  be  to  be  esteemed  as 
heathens  and  publicans,  yet  not  worse,  "  have  no 
company  with  them,"  that  is  the  worst  that  is  to 
be  done  to  such  a  man  in  St.  Paul's  judgment : 
"  yet  count  him  not  as  an  enemy,  but  admonish 
him  as  a  brother."  ^ 


408  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 


SECTION    XXI. 

Of  the  Duty  of  jjarticular  Churches  in  allowing 
Communion. 

Fkom  these  premises  we  are  easily  instructed 
concerning  the  lawfulness  or  duty  respectively  of 
Christian  communion,  which  is  differently  to  be 
considered  in  respect  of  particular  churches  to 
each  other,  and  of  particular  men  to  particular 
churches  :  for  as  for  particular  churches,  they  are 
bound  to  allow  communion  to  all  those  that  pro- 
fess the  same  faith  upon  which  the  apostles  did 
give  communion;  for  whatsoever  preserves  us  as 
members  of  the  church,  gives  us  title  to  the  com- 
munion of  saints ;  and  whatsoever  faith  or  belief 
that  is  to  which  God  hath  promised  heaven,  that 
faith  makes  us  members  of  the  catholic  churcli. 
Since,  therefore,  the  judicial  acts  of  the  church 
are  then  most  prudent  and  religious  when  they 
nearest  imitate  the  example  and  piety  of  God,  to 
make  the  way  to  heaven  straiter  than  God  made 
it,  or  to  deny  to  communicate  with  those  whom 
God  will  vouchsafe  to  be  united,  and  to  refuse  our 
charity  to  those  who  have  the  same  faith,  because 
they  have  not  all  our  opinions,  and  believe  not 
every  thing  necessary  which  we  overvalue,  is  im- 
pious and  schismatical ;  it  infers  tyranny  on  one 
part,  and  persuades  and  tempts  to  uncharitableness 
and  animosities  on  both ;  it  dissolves  societies,  and 
is  an  enemy  to  peace ;  it  busies  men  in  impertinent 
wranglings,  and  by  names  of  men  and  titles  of 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  409 

factions  it  consigns  the  interested  parties  to  act 
their  differences  to  the  height,  and  makes  them 
neglect  those  advantages  which  piety  and  a  good 
life  bring  to  the  reputation  of  Christian  religion 
and  societies. 

And  therefore  Vincentius  Lirinensis,  and  indeed 
the  whole  church,  accounted  the  Donatists  heretics 
upon  this  very  ground,  because  they  did  imperi- 
ously deny  their  communion  to  all  that  were  not 
of  their  persuasion ;  whereas  the  authors  of  that 
opinion  for  which  they  first  did  separate  and  make 
a  sect,  because  they  did  not  break  the  church's 
peace,  nor  magisterially  prescribe  to  others,  were 
in  that  disagreeing  and  error  accounted  Catholics. 
**  Division  and  disunion  makes  you  heretics,  peace 
and  unity  make  Catliolics,"*  said  St.  Austin ;  and 
to  this  sense  is  that  of  St.  Paul :  "  If  I  had  all  faith 
and  not  charity  I  am  nothing."  He  who  upon  con- 
fidence of  his  true  belief  denies  a  charitable  com- 
munion to  his  brother,  loses  the  reward  of  both. 
And  if  pope  Victor  had  been  as  charitable  to  the 
Asiatics  as  pope  Anicetus  and  St.  Polycarp  were 
to  each  other  in  the  same  disagreeing  concerning 
Easter,Victor  had  not  been  TrxyixTmarspov  KArAri^u/uuvoc, 
so  bitterly  reproved  and  condemned  as  he  was  for 
the  uncharitable  managing  of  his  disagreeing,  by 
Polycrates  and  Irenseus.t  True  faith,  which  leads 
to  charity,  leads  on  to  that  which  unites  wills  and 
affections,  not  opinions.^ 

Upon  these  or  the  like  considerations  the  emperor 
Zeno  published  his  syaTwov,  in  which  he  made  the 

*  "Divisio  enim  et  disunio  facit  vos  haereticos,  pax  et 
unitas  faciunt  Catholicos." 

t  Euseb.  lib.  v.  c.  25,  26. 

I  "  Concordia  enim  qua?,  est  qharitatis  effectu^  est  unio 
voluntatum  non  opinionum." — Aquin.  22  ae.  q.  37,  a.  1. 
9.!^ 


410  THE    SACRED    CLASSICS. 

Nicene  creed  to  be  the  medium  of  Catholic  com- 
munion ;  and  although  he  lived  after  the  council 
of  Chalcedon,  jet  he  made  not  the  decrees  of  that 
council  an  instrument  of  its  restraint  and  limit,  as 
preferring  the  peace  of  Christendom  and  the  union 
of  charity  far  before  a  forced  or  pretended  unity  of 
persuasion,  which  never  was  or  ever  will  be  real 
and  substantial ;  and  although  it  were  very  conve- 
nient if  it  could  be  had,  yet  it  is  therefore  not  ne- 
cessary because  it  is  impossible ;  and  if  men  please, 
whatever  advantages  to  the  public  would  be  conse- 
quent to  it,  may  be  supplied  by  a  charitable  com- 
pliance and  mutual  permission  of  opinion,  and  tlie 
offices  of  a  brotherly  affection  prescribed  us  by  the 
laws  of  Christianity;  and  we  have  seen  it,  that  all 
sects  of  Christians,  when  they  have  an  end  to  be 
served  upon  a  third,  have  permitted  that  liberty  to 
a  second  which  we  nov/  contend  for,  and  which  they 
formerly  denied,  but  now  grant,  that  by  joining 
hands  they  might  be  stronger  to  destroy  the  third. 
The  Arians  and  Meletians  joined  against  the 
Catholics ;  the  Catholics  and  Novatians  joined 
against  the  Arians.  Now,  if  men  would  do  that 
for  charity  which  they  do  for  interest,  it  were  hand- 
somer and  more  ingenuous ;  for  that  they  do  permit 
each  other's  disagreeings  for  their  own  interest's 
sake,  convinces  them  of  the  lawfulness  of  the 
thing,  or  else  the  unlawfulness  of  their  own  pro- 
ceedings ;  and  therefore  it  were  better  they  would 
serve  the  ends  of  charity  than  of  faction ;  for  then 
that  good  end  would  hallow  the  proceeding,  and 
make  it  both  more  prudent  and  most  pious,  while 
it  serves  the  design  of  religious  purposes. 


THE   LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  411 


SECTION   XXII. 

That  particular  Men  may  communicate  with 
Churches  of  different  PersuasionSy  and  how  far 
they  may  do  it. 

As  for  the  duty  of  particular  men  in  the  question 
of  communicating  with  churches  of  different  per- 
suasions, it  is  to  be  regulated  according  to  the  laws 
of  those  churches ;  for  if  they  require  no  impiety  or 
any  thing  unlawful  as  the  condition  of  their  com- 
munion, then  they  communicate  with  them  as  they 
are  servants  of  Christ,  as  disciples  of  his  doctrine, 
and  subjects  to  his  laws ;  and  the  particular  distin- 
guishing doctrine  of  his  sect  hath  no  influence  or 
communication  with  him  who,  from  another  sect,  is 
willing  to  communicate  with  ail  the  servants  of 
their  common  Lord :  for  since  no  church  of  one 
name  is  infallible,  a  wise  man  may  have  either  the 
misfortune,  or  a  reason,  to  believe  of  every  one  in 
particular  that  she  errs  in  some  article  or  other ; 
either  he  cannot  communicate  with  any,  or  else 
he  may  communicate  with  all  that  do  not  make  a 
sin  or  the  profession  of  an  error  to  be  the  con- 
dition of  their  communion.  And  therefore,  as 
every  particular  church  is  bound  to  tolerate  dis- 
agreeing persons,  in  the  senses  and  for  the  reasons 
above  explicated,  so  every  particular  person  is 
bound  to  tolerate  her ;  that  is,  not  to  refuse  her 
communion  when  he  may  have  it  upon  innocent 
conditions.  For  what  is  it  to  me  if  the  Greek 
church  denies  procession  of  the  third  person  from 


412  THE  SACRED  CLASSICS. 

the  second,  so  she  will  give  me  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  (though  I  affirm  it),  therefore  because 
I  profess  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  retain  all 
matters  of  faith  and  necessity  ?  But  this  thing 
will  scarce  be  reduced  to  practice,  for  few  churches 
that  have  framed  bodies  of  confession  and  articles 
will  endure  any  person  that  is  not  of  the  same  con- 
fession; which  is  a  plain  demonstration  that  such 
bodies  of  confession  and  articles  do  much  hurt,  by 
becoming  instruments  of  separating  and  dividing 
communions,  and  making  unnecessary  or  uncertain 
propositions  a  certain  means  of  schism  and  dis- 
union. But  then  men  would  do  well  to  consider 
whether  or  no  such  proceedings  do  not  derive  the 
guilt  of  schism  upon  them  who  least  think  it;  and 
whether  of  the  two  is  the  schismatic,  he  that  makes 
unnecessary  and  (supposing  the  state  of  things) 
inconvenient  impositions,  or  he  that  disobeys  them 
because  he  cannot,  without  doing  violence  to  his 
conscience,  believe  them :  he  that  parts  communion 
because  without  sin  he  could  not  entertain  it,  or 
they  that  have  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  sepa- 
rate, by  requiring  such  conditions  which  to  man 
are  simply  necessary,  and  to  his  particular  are 
either  sinful  or  impossible. 

The  sum  of  all  is  this,  there  is  no  security  in  any 
thing  or  to  any  person,  but  in  tlie  pious  and  hearty 
endeavors  of  a  good  life; — and  neither  sin  nor 
error  does  impede  it  from  producing  its  propor- 
tionate and  intended  effect;  because  it  is  a  direct 
deletery  to  sin,  and  an  excuse  to  errors,  by  making 
them  innocent,  and  therefore  harmless.  And,  in- 
deed, this  is  the  intendment  and  design  of  faith ; 
for  (that  we  may  join  both  ends  of  this  discourse 
together)  therefore  certain  articles  are  prescribed 
to  us,  and  propounded  to  our  understanding,  that 


THE    LIBERTY    OF    PROPHESYING.  413 

80  we  might  be  supplied  with  instructions,  with 
motives  and  engagements  to  incline  and  determine 
our  wills  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  So  that  obe- 
dience is  just  so  consequent  to  faith,  as  the  acts 
of  will  are  to  the  dictates  of  the  understanding. 
Faith,  therefore,  being  in  order  to  obedience,  and 
so  far  excellent  as  itself  is  a  part  of  obedience  or 
the  promoter  of  it,  or  an  engagement  to  it,  it  is 
evident  that  if  obedience  and  a  good  life  be  secured 
upon  the  most  reasonable  and  proper  grounds  of 
Christianity — that  is,  upon  the  apostles'  creed — 
then  faith  also  is  secured.  Siace  whatsoever  is 
beside  the  duties,  the  order  of  a  good  life  cannot 
be  a  part  of  faith,  because  upon  faith"  a  goo<l  life  is 
built;  all  other  articles,  bj  not  being  necessary, 
are  no  otlierwise  to  be  required  but  as  they  arc  to 
be  obtained  and  found  out — that  is,  morally,  and 
fallibly,  and  humanly:  it  is  fit  all  truths  be  pro- 
moted fairly  and  properly,  and  yet  but  few  articles 
prescribed  magisterially,  nor  framed  into  symbols 
and  bodies  of  confession;  least  of  all,  after  such 
composures,  should  men  proceed  so  furiously  as  to 
say  all  disagreeing,  after  such  declarations,  to  be 
damnable  for  the  future  and  capital  for  the  present. 
But  this  very  thing  is  reason  enough  to  make  men 
more  limited  in  their  proscriptions,  because  it  is 
more  charitable  in  such  suppositions  to  do  so. 

But  in  the  thing  itself,  because  few  kinds  of 
errors  are  damnable,  it  is  reasonable  as  few  should 
be  capital ;  and  because  every  thing  that  is  damn- 
able in  itself,  and  before  God's  judgment-seat,  is 
not  discernible  before  men  (and  questions  dis- 
putable are  of  this  condition),  it  is  also  very  rea- 
sonable that  fewer  be  capital  than  what  are  damn- 
able, and  that  such  questions  should  be  permitted 
to  men  to  believe,  because  they  must  be  left  to 


414  THE   SACRED    CLASSICS. 

God  to  judge.  It  concerns  all  persons  to  see  that 
they  do  their  best  to  find  out  truth,  and  if  they  do, 
it  is  certain  that  let  the  error  be  never  so  damnable, 
tliey  shall  escape  the  error  or  the  misery  of  being 
damned  for  it.  And  if  God  will  not  be  angry  at  men 
for  being  invincibly  deceived,  why  shouid  men  be 
angry  one  at  another  ?  For  he  that  is  most  dis- 
pleased at  another  man's  error,  may  also  be  tempted 
in  his  own  will,  and  as  much  deceived  in  his  un- 
derstanding ;  for  if  he  may  fail  in  what  he  can 
choose,  he  may  also  fail  in  what  he  cannot  choose ; 
his  understanding  is  no  more  secured  than  his  will, 
nor  his  faith  more  than  his  obedience.  It  is  his  own 
fault  if  he  offends  God  in  either ;  but  whatsoever 
is  not  to  be  avoided,  as  errors  which  are  incident 
oftentimes  even  to  the  best  and  most  inquisitive 
of  men,  are  not  offences  against  God,  and  therefore 
not  to  be  punished  or  restrained  by  men.  But  all 
such  opinions  in  which  the  public  interests  of  the 
commonwealth,  and  the  foundation  of  faith,  and  a 
good  life  are  not  concerned,  are  to  be  permitted 
freely :  "  Let  every  one  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind,"  was  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul,  and  that 
is  argument  and  conclusion  too;  and  they  were  ex- 
cellent words  which  St.  Ambrose  said  in  attestation 
of  this  great  truth: — *'The  civil  authority  has  no 
right  to  interdict  the  liberty  of  speaking,  nor  the 
sacerdotal  to  prevent  speaking  what  you  think."* 
I  end  with  a  story  which  I  find  in  the  Jews' 
books  : — When  Abraham  sat  at  his  tent  door, 
according  to  his  custom,  waiting  to  entertain 
strangers,  he  espied  an  old  man  stooping  and 
leaning  on  his  staff,  weary  with  age  and  travel, 

*  "Nee  imperiale  est  libertatem  dicendi  negate, nee  sacer- 
dotale  quod  sentias  non  dicere." 


THE    LIBERTY  OF  PROPHESYING.  415 

coming  towards  him,  who  was  an  hundred  years 
of  age ;  he  received  him  kindly,  washed  his  feet, 
provided  supper,  and  caused  him  to  sit  down ;  but 
observing  that  the  old  man  eat  and  prayed  not, 
nor  begged  for  a  blessing  on  his  meat,  asked  him 
why  he  did  not  worship  the  God  of  heaven  ?  The 
old  man  told  him  that  he  worshiped  the  fire  only, 
and  acknowledged  no  other  god ;  at  which  answer 
Abraham  grew  so  zealously  angry,  that  he  thrust 
the  old  man  out  of  his  tent,  and  exposed  him  to  all 
the  evils  of  the  night  and  an  un2;uarded  condition. 
When  the  old  man  was  gone,  God  called  to  Abra- 
ham, and  asked  him  where  the  stranger  was  ?  he 
replied,  I  thrust  him  away  because  he  did  not  wor- 
ship thee.  God  answered  him,  I  have  suffered  him 
these  hundred  years,  although  he  dishonored  me, 
and  couldst  thou  not  endure  him  one  night,  when 
he  gave  thee  no  trouble  ?  Upon  this,  saith  the  story, 
Abraham  fetched  him  back  again,  and  gave  him 
hospitable  entertainment,  and  wise  instruction  :— 
"  Go  thou  and  do  likewise,"  and  thy  charity  will 
be  rewarded  by  the  God  of  Abraham. 


THE     END. 


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